Some Things are Meant to Change
by 18Tsunayoshi
Summary: When a baby tutor kicks down Sawada Tsunayoshi's door and becomes the self-proclaimed tutor of Sawada Ietsugu, it is the start of a series of many changes to his life. Whether these changes will be good or bad is something he will have to find out. Twin fic, mild Tsuna abuse. Very mild 1827.
1. Prologue

**Warnings: **There maybe some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights go to Amano Akira.

"hi"-normal speak

"_hi_"-Tsuna's thoughts.

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Elementary School:

Tsuna curled up into a ball as he prepared himself for the kick that was sure to come.

"I can't believe he got an 18 on the math test! I didn't think anyone could get a grade that low!" the leader laughed as he kicked Tsuna. Tsuna protected his head and idly thought about what his mother would be cooking for dinner that night._ I hope she makes Salisbury steak tonight. _He winced after a particularly hard kick to his back. _I hope he didn't break anything._

"I think we should leave now. It's almost dinner time," one of the bullies said. The leader of this little gang looked up from where he was kicking the curled-up child on the ground. He nodded and turned around, about to leave. Then he remembered something.

"Don't think this is over, Dame-Tsuna! We'll continue this tomorrow!" he yelled as he grabbed his bag from the ground and gave Tsuna one last kick. He turned and left with the rest of his _buddies_ as Tsuna slowly uncurled himself. _Hmm...I think I have a few bruises and cuts on my back, but nothing too serious._ He stood up slowly, wincing at the pain he felt, and reached for his bag.

* * *

><p>When Tsuna arrived at his home, the first thing he noticed was the smell of Salisbury steak. <em>Mmm...I thank you gods for heeding my prayers.<em> Nana popped her head out from inside of the kitchen.

"Welcome back, Tsu-kun!" she smiled brightly at him. Tsuna smiled back, almost forgetting about the pain from his wounds. _Thank god none of the wounds are visible from the outside._

"I'm back, mom," he replied quietly as he went upstairs to his room.

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes, so go wash up!" Nana's voice followed him up the stairs.

"Hai!" he replied, turning his head back for a second. He opened the door to his room and dropped his bag on the floor. He took the first-aid kit hidden under his bed and went to the bathroom. After locking the door, he lifted his shirt up over his head and looked at his back in the mirror. He winced at what he saw. His back was already bruising, and there were a few shallow cuts where the bullies had scratched him when they grabbed him to keep him from going home safely. _Look on the bright side! At least this is helping to improve my pain tolerance!_ Tsuna spread ointment on the cuts and bandaged them. He pulled his shirt over his head, just as he heard the front door slam open.

"I'm home!" his twin brother yelled. Sawada Ietsugu was older than Tsuna by 1 minute. He looked almost exactly like Tsuna, except his hair was yellow and less spiky.

"Look, mom! I got a 100 on my math test!" Ietsugu said proudly. Tsuna glanced at his bag, where his math test lay with a big red 18 on the top. He winced and sighed as he went down the stairs. Thankfully, he was able to get down without tripping. He really didn't want to add anymore bruises to his back.

"Dame-Tsuna! Look! I got a 100 on my test! What'd you get?" Ietsugu asked as soon as he saw Tsuna step into the kitchen. Tsuna looked up at him warily when he heard the sadistic tone in Ietsugu's voice. His eyes glinted with superiority, knowing that there was no way Tsuna had gotten a good score on his test. Tsuna looked at Nana, who looked at him with curiosity. He sighed. There really was no way to get out of this situation.

"I got an 18," Tsuna mumbled dejectedly, hoping that his mother and brother hadn't heard him. Sadly, it seemed the gods had decided to stop granting him favors for the day.

"Bwahahaha! I didn't know anyone could get an 18! You're amazing! I don't think anyone could fail this bad!" Ietsugu burst out laughing. Tsuna's eyes darkened, and he looked up to see his mother's expression. What he saw made him feel even worse. She was looking at him with disappointment. _I'm sorry I can't be more like Ie-kun. I'm sorry I'm such a failure. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sor-_

"Now that Ie-kun is back, why don't we eat dinner?" Nana suggested, cutting off Tsuna's thoughts. He shuffled over to the table, Ietsugu and Nana walking in front of him. He glanced up and saw them laughing as sparkles seemed to surround them. _They look just like a happy family._ He inwardly laughed humorlessly. _And I'm not included._ He shuffled over to his seat and began eating the Salisbury steak.

"Guess what, mom?" Ietsugu said excitedly.

"What is it, Ie-kun?" Nana asked.

"I got into the soccer team! The coach said I was so good that I might even be promoted to team captain soon!" Ietsugu exclaimed, waving his chopsticks around exitedly.

"That's wonderful!" Nana beamed. "I'm so lucky to have you as my son!"

_What about me?_ Tsuna wanted to say. I'm_ your son, too!_ But he didn't. It wouldn't change anything if he did, anyway. He picked at his steak. It no longer seemed so appetizing anymore. He stood up, excused himself, and placed his unfinished steak next to the sink. Nana and Ietsugu just kept talking. _Of course. Why would they even bother with me? I'm just Dame-Tsuna. I can't do anything right._ Tsuna walked up the stairs and started on his homework, which he completely failed at. He then put on his pajamas and went to bed. He closed his eyes and surrendered to the darkness.

* * *

><p>The Next Day:<p>

Tsuna woke up early to make his breakfast and his lunch. _I wonder if he'll be there today. I've never seen him eat anything for lunch. Maybe I should make something for him..._ He nodded and began to make another bento. When he finished, he ate his breakfast, packed his things, and left for school, just before Nana woke up. This way, he could avoid the bullies on his way to school. He sighed. _It's also to avoid the pain of being ignored by mom and Ietsugu, _he thought. The walk to school seemed lonelier than usual.

When he arrived at school, he sat down and began to read a book. It was his favorite thing to do. Literature was his best subject, and he realy enjoyed the feeling of being pulled into another world. He didn't worry about anything when he read. When all the students began pouring in, he put his book away before any of them could see it. The last time someone had seen him with a book, they had taken it and thrown it in a mud puddle. He didn't want to risk that happening again.

The day passed as usual. He got mocked, he failed another test, he embarrassed himself in front of the class, and he answered multiple questions wrong. All in all, it was a normal day. When the lunch bell rang, he grabbed his bag and rushed upstairs to the roof. When he opened the door, he saw _him_ sleeping. The most feared man in Namimori, and the leader of the Disciplinary Committee, Hibari Kyoya. Most people would run away in fear, but Tsuna wasn't most people. He smiled and sat down a respectable distance away.

Hibari woke up to Tsuna reading a book while eating lunch. "Fluffy Herbivore," he said. Tsun alooked up from his book and nodded.

"D-d-did you h-have a n-nice nap?" he asked politely. Hibari ignored him.

"Herbivores aren't allowed on the roof," he glared at Tsuna. This herbivore never seemed to be afraid of him, and kept coming up to the roof no matter how many times Hibari bit him to death. His persistence was annoying, but commendable. The herbivore smiled and reached into his bag. Hibari reached for his tonfas, his guard up. He had almost been tased by a herbivore once because he had thought the herbivore was harmless. The herbivore had not come out unscathed, but Hibari did _not_ want a repeat of that event again. He lowered his tonfas slightly out of surprise when he saw that the fluffy herbivore had taken out a bento.

"Th-this is for you," Tsuna said, sliding it over to Hibari. Hibari looked at it suspiciously. "D-don't worry, I d-didn't p-poison it or anything. I just n-noticed that you d-didn't seem to eat anything for -llunch, so I decided to m-make something for you," Tsuna said, tilting his head innocently. Hibari stared and slowly picked up the bento. The bell rang.

"I sh-should g-go now. I hope you enjoy the b-bento!" Tsuna smiled as he left the roof.

Hibari held the bento and stared at the door that the herbivore had just left through. He was an interesting little herbivore, Hibari thought as he absent-mindedly began eating the bento.

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><p>After another few hours of failing, tripping over thin air, and basically making a fool of himself in front of the entire class, it was finally the end of the school day. Tsuna went to his shoe locker and switched his shoes. <em>I hope he enjoyed the lunch…he's the only one who never judged me and treated me the same as everyone else. Maybe we can become friends…<em>

"Hey, look! It's Dame-Tsuna!"

"I heard he got another 27 on the history test today!"

"Wow, really? He really is no-good!"

Tsuna watched as the trio of bullies sauntered up to him. He looked around, hoping for someone, anyone, to save him. His head stopped moving when he saw Ietsugu. _Please help me. Please,_ he thought desperately. He watched as his older twin brother took a step forward, then smiled evilly and turned around. As he left, Tsuna could feel what little hope he had shatter into little tiny pieces. He looked down as he braced himself for the blow that was sure to come in five, four, three, two…

Tsuna opened his eyes when he didn't feel anything. He looked up to see someone's back with a black jacket over it and a DC armband on it. _Who?_

"For disturbing the peace of Namimori and attacking a harmless herbivore, I will bite you to death," said the most feared man of Namimori as he stood in front of Tsuna protectively. Tsuna watched as he took out the trio of bullies in under a minute. Hibari turned to him and reached into his jacket. Tsuna watched his warily as he took out a…bento? _Wait, that's the one I gave him during lunch today…_ Hibari extended his arm towards Tsuna and dropped the bento box on his lap.

"It was good," he said. Tsuna looked up at him incredulously, and then his face melted into a smile, bright as the sun.

"I expect another one tomorrow," he continued as he turned around.

If it was even possible, Tsuna's smile grew even brighter. "Sure!"

And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: Hi guys! I'm new here, and this is my first fic. Please review, it would be helpful if you gave me tips on how to make my writing better. It would also give me more motivation. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Also, I was thinking of making a poll to see if anyone wanted a pairing. I'll put one up with the next chapter if people want me to do so. <strong>


	2. The Arrival of the Home Tutor

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p><strong>Middle School:<strong>

Tsuna woke up in bed and lay there for a few minutes. _I don't wanna get up…but if I don't, Kyoya might bite me to death…_With that thought, he immediately decided to get out of bed and stood up. Well, attempted to stand up. His legs were tangled in the bedsheets, and he ended up face-planting on the floor. He groaned in pain and stood up, untangling his bedsheets while rubbing at his face. _I hope that didn't leave a bruise anywhere…_

Tsuna absent-mindedly made his way to the bathroom and washed up. He then walked down the stairs to the kitchen, only tripping once the whole way. _Thank god for that. _He prepared his breakfast with a pleased expression. While he ate his breakfast, he made his lunch and Hibari's lunch. When he was done, he placed his empty plate into the sink and looked at the two bento boxes, nodding with approval. _Salisbury __steak for me, hamburger steak for Kyoya…everything's perfect!_ He put the bento in his bag and left the house.

He had barely gone two steps out of the house when he felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck. _Is someone watching me?_ he thought as he looked around. _It feels like it's coming from…that tree!_ He looked at the tree in the front lawn. He stared at it for a few minutes before looking away and continuing on to school. _I guess it was just my imagination…oh well!_

* * *

><p>Reborn wasn't the world's greatest hitman for nothing. Even before he was cursed, when his name was Renato Sinclair, everyone in the underworld knew him as the strongest hitman. He was known to fire a bullet accurately within 0.05 seconds. He could probably destroy a famiglia single-handed lay without a scratch. He was a master of camouflage and could carry out assassinations without breaking a sweat. So when he was spying on the soon-to-be Vongola Decimo's house, he did not expect the younger twin to find his hiding place so easily.<p>

The younger twin was supposed to be no good. He failed at everything. He always failed tests, he couldn't ride a two-wheeled bike until fifth grade, and he's afraid of a _chihuahua. _A chihuahua. Who's afraid of a _chihuahua? _Yet, when the supposedly no-good twin stared at his hiding place intently for a good five minutes, even Reborn had to double-check to make sure that he hadn't made a mistake._ Is my information accurate? I didn't mix up the older and the younger twin, did I?_

After checking to make sure he had, in fact, collected the correct information-checking discreetly, of course, because he couldn't just give himself away by moving around too much, or that would defeat the whole purpose-he sat still in his spot, unmoving, waiting for the younger twin-_what was his name again? Right, it was Tsuna_-to leave.

When the brunet finally turned around and left, Reborn let out the breath he hadn't even known he was holding. He watched as the teen skipped away, humming happily for no apparent reason. _If the useless twin was able to sense me in less than a minute, I can't wait to see how long it will take for the older one to sense my presence… _he licked his lips with anticipation and his eyes shined with a calculating glint as he watched the Sawada household.

* * *

><p>Tsuna skipped as he went to school, humming a tuneless song under his breath. <em>It feels like something really good is going to happen today...maybe the bullies will finally decide to stop trying to bully me? That'd be nice...<em> His eyes darkened for a moment, thinking about the bullies who never seemed to stop, no matter how many times Kyoya threatened them. _Ietsugu..._ His eyes lightened again when he heard a loud "EXTREEEEEEEEMEE!" coming from behind him. He moved out of the way as Sasagawa Ryohei ran up.

"Good morning, Sasagawa-senpai," he greeted quietly as Ryohei ran past him.

"EXTREMELY GOOD MORNING SAWADA!" Ryohei yelled back as he sprinted far ahead of Tsuna. Tsuna smiled as he watched Ryohei. _He's really energetic...it's kind of refreshing._ He walked the rest of the way to school, thankfully not encountering any of his bullies on the way. When he got to school, he saw Hibari standing in front of the school gates, waiting for him.

"Good morning, Kyoya," Tsuna greeted. Hibari glanced at him before following him into the school building. _Tsunayoshi looks really happy today…I guess that's a good thing… _Hibari shrugged inwardly and just left it alone.

"Hn," he grunted, the barest hint of a smile appearing on his face before disappearing completely. They walked the rest of the way to the DC room in complete silence.

When they reached their destination, Tsuna began making tea for the two of them, setting a cup of green tea in front of Kyoya while he had Earl Grey tea. They drank in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Tsuna gave Hibari his lunch.

"Here's your lunch!" Tsuna said, smiling, as he presented one of the bento boxes he had prepared that morning. Hibari set his cup down and took the lunch box, nodding his thanks. They then sat for a few more minutes, drinking in each others' presence as they drank the rest of their tea. When the bell rang, Tsuna picked up his bag and waved to Hibari before going to his classroom.

"See you at lunch?" He asked. Hibari merely 'hn'ed in respose and nodded. Tsuna grinned brightly and left, quickly making his way to his classroom.

* * *

><p>After what had occurred that morning, Reborn had expected something more exciting to happen. There was no way the older, more <em>competent <em>twin would be able to see him (he _was_ the world's greatest hitman), but he should have at least been able to sense him.

Reborn watched as the older twin-_Sawada Ietsugu_, his mind supplied helpfully-walked out of the Sawada household. He looked like the perfect student. His uniform was perfect, and there was nothing out of place. Quite a difference from the younger twin, who couldn't seem to even put on his school uniform properly. All in all, he seemed like the better twin. However, when Ietsugu walked out of the house and didn't seem to notice anything strange, Reborn knew there was something wrong.

_There's no way he's feigning his obliviousness…he doesn't have enough training for that. Maybe he's too used to being watched? He is supposedly the most popular kid in school…_Reborn released some killing intent to see if he could get a reaction out of Ietsugu. Ietsugu just continued walking to school, still completely oblivious to his surroundings, or more specifically, Reborn. _No,__ it doesn't seem like that's it either. _

Reborn watched on as Ietsugu walked the rest of the way to Namimori Middle School, greeting his 'friends' with a fake smile (honestly, how could people not see how fake it was? It looked so obvious!), and came to the conclusion that he would just have to observe the twins some more, but…so far, it seemed like the younger twin had more potential.

* * *

><p>Tsuna winced as the door to the classroom was slammed open. He watched as Ietsugu sauntered in with his gang of 'friends' behind him. <em>Poor door…<em>

"Hey, Dame-Tsuna!"

Tsuna watched as they slowly walked over to his table, the last dregs of his good feeling disappearing. He watched as they smiled threateningly, promising horrible things. _Someone_ _help me, please! _He smiled bitterly as he realized that no one would come to his rescue. Not now, not ever. _Just like it's been for the past three years… _Tsuna closed his eyes as he waited for something to come. A punch, a kick, an insult…anything.

"Alright, everyone! Sit down!"

Tsuna's eyes flew open as he sighed with relief._ I didn't think I'd ever say this, but thank you, Nezu-sensei. Today really is a good day… _He watched as Ietsugu turned around, a disappointed look in his eyes as his lackeys followes his lead and sat down in their seats. He watched as Ietsugu turned back around, staring at him. _This isn't over yet, _his eyes seemed to say. Tsuna shivered as he cowered back slightly in his seat as Ietsugu faced forward again, pleased at the reaction he had managed to extract from Tsuna.

* * *

><p>The rest of the morning passed quickly. Tsuna got an 59 on his science test (Kyoya had been doing his best to tutor him-he still had the bruises) while Ietsugu had gotten a 100. Tsuna had worked so hard, but…things just didn't seem to make sense to him. He watched as everyone congratulated Ietsugu for his 100, all while insulting Tsuna.<p>

"Wow, you did so well! As expected from you! Why didn't Dame-Tsuna get any of the good genes?" His friends slapped him on the back.

"As expected from Ietsugu-sama!" Cue flowery sparkles from the Ietsugu fanclub.

"Hahaha! You're so smart, Ietsugu! I wish I could have your brain!" Yamamoto Takeshi. _At least this one didn't insult me… _

"It's a wonder how you're even related to Dame-Tsuna! You are so much better than him!" Random student.

And lastly, the teacher: "Good job, Sawada! If only the other Sawada could be as smart as you…"

Tsuna looked down at his test paper. He remembered his previous scores: a 27, a 33, a 48…his grades had been slowly rising, but of course no one noticed or cared. He was just Dame-Tsuna. He glanced up when he felt someone staring at him and say Ietsugu watching him, a superior look on his face. His eyes seemed to gleam as he watched Tsuna curl in to himself stare at his test paper as if he were traumatized. Tsuna then looked up again and watched as everyone slowly wandered back to their seats after congratulating Ietsugu, while his eyes darkened and his head lowered as he turned to face the front of the classroom.

* * *

><p>Reborn stared at the scene in front of him with anger. He watched as the older Sawada. the "Golden Boy", was showered with praises, while the younger one, "Useless Tsuna", was mocked and ridiculed. He hadn't even gotten the lowest grade in the class! That baseball-obsessed boy-<em>Yamamoto Takeshi<em>-had gotten a 51, 8 points lower than what Tsuna had gotten. He knew that Tsuna was being bullied, but to this extent? He watched as the older twin-this_ trash_-watched Tsuna triumphantly while Tsuna's expression just seemed to look more defeated at every sentence, every insult he heard. Reborn's hands clenched at his sides. _I need to train Sawada Ietsugu to be a good mafia boss, and it seems I need to start with teaching him respect for his family._ He smiled cruelly as he imagined all the things he could do while training Ietsugu. _This is going to be so much fun..._

Inside the classroom, Ietsugu shivered.

* * *

><p>Tsuna rushed outside the classroom to the roof, clutching his bag, the moment the bell rang. He opened the door quietly, careful not to disturb the other occupant, who seemed to be sleeping at the moment. He stepped onto the roof and closed the door quietly before settling down at a spot near the sleeping occupant and opening his bag. He began to eat while reading a book-<em>The Art of War<em>-and waiting for Hibari to wake up.

"Herbivore," Hibari greeted when he woke up ten minutes later. Tsuna smiled at him.

"Did you have a nice nap?" he asked politely as he put down his book. Hibari frowned.

"What happened, herbivore? You seem less...happy now," Hibari asked, trying not to let the concern show on his face.

"Nothing happened," Tsuna replied, shaking his head, trying to banish away all the bad feelings from the morning. Hibari frowned harder as his eyes took on a steely glint.

"Tell me..." he demanded threateningly. Tsuna smiled again, sadly.

"It's fine, really. More importantly..." Tsuna lowered his head so his bangs shadowed his eyes. Hibari waited for Tsuna to finish his sentence, tensing a bit. "...I think this is the most I've heard you say in one conversation!" Tsuna looked up, and Hibari could finally see that his expression was one of mischievousness.

Hibari's fingers clenched around a tonfa as he whipped it out and smacked Tsuna over the head with it, then proceeded to sit down and eat the lunch he had been given that morning and ignore Tsuna. Tsuna pouted, but he smiled inwardly, happy at having diverted the conversation successfully. _Now to get Kyoya to stop ignoring me… _Tsuna waved his hand in front of Hibari's face.

"Kyoya…" Hibari turned to face the other direction. Tsuna smiled mischievously.

"Kyoya, are you sulking?" With this, Hibari turned back around and glared at Tsuna, as if saying, "Do you think that _I_, the most feared man in Namimori, would _sulk_?" Tsuna laughed, and Hibari's face softened the tiniest bit before going back to its usual cold indifference.

"Sit."

Tsuna rushed to get his lunch and sit next to Hibari. They ate together in a companionable silence until the bell rang.

* * *

><p>When the day ended, Tsuna rushed out of school as fast as he could. Apparently, he wasn't fast enough.<p>

"Dame-Tsuna! Where do you think you're going?"

Tsuna turned around and watched as his impending doom crept up on him with a horrified look on his face. He shrunk back with fear as he debated between running home or just taking the beating. _I am the slowest kid in the school…they'll be able to outrun me, and then they'll just make this…_session…_worse than usual... I'll just stay here._

Ietsugu and his friends advanced upon him threateningly, cracking their knuckles. Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut as he braced himself for the beating that was sure to come. It had barely even started when they heard a sentence that was feared throughout Namimori.

"I will bite you to death, herbivores."

They all turned around, Ietsugu and his lackeys with a scared expression, while Tsuna looked at his savior with a grateful look. Hibari motioned for Tsuna to leave while he took care of the 'herbivores'.

"Please don't hurt them too much."

And Tsuna was gone.

* * *

><p>When Ietsugu came home that evening, he had bruises and scratches littering his body. Nana immediately fussed over him, asking what happened and treating his wounds. Tsuna watched as she tended to his wounds. He shook his head. <em>She is a good mother, but…she just seems to have her priorities all set on Ietsugu. It does take a lot of work to take care of him…<em>just as he thought that, he heard Ietsugu demand a can of soda. _Really, such a demanding child_…

Ietsugu glanced at him with a dark look, as if sensing what Tsuna had been thinking. Tsuna shrunk back and ran to his room as fast as he could. _I thought nothing, I though nothing…nope, nope, nope. I'm completely innocent. Yup, totally. I did not just think he was a spoiled child. Nope!_

He attempted to complete his homework, finishing all of it, most of his answers probably wrong. _Oh, well…I'll just get Kyoya to help me with it tomorrow! _He then read the latest chapter of _One Piece _that had just come out that day. _Oh my god…Zoro is so awesome! _When he heard his mother call down Ietsugu for dinner, he sighed with resignation. _She forgot me again..._ He went downstairs anyway and fixed himself a plate of food while listening to his female parental unit.

"...And I got a tutor for you!" Wait. _What?_

"What?!" It seemed Ietsugu was thinking the same thing.

"I don't need a tutor! I'm getting a 100 in all of my subjects! If anyone needs a tutor, it's Dame-Tsuna! He can't get anything above a 60!" _Ouch. That really hurt, Ie-kun. Really._

"But Ie-kun! Look at the advertisement! 'Will raise your kid to be the new leader of the next generation. Grade and subject doesn't matter. Reborn.' Doesn't that sound nice? He can shape you into an even better person!" _ I don't know...it kind of seems like a scam to me,_ Tsuna thought.

"I don't care! I'm not the one that needs a tutor! Dame-Tsuna should be the one getting the tutor! His grades probably wouldn't get better anyway, though..." _Wow. Just... wow. _Tsuna felt like curling in on himself, but he settled for just slumping over his food and eating the rest of his dinner.

"Tsu-kun's teachers have all tried so hard to bring up his grades, but none of them have actually been able to! This one probably wouldn't be any different any way!" Tsuna just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

"Ciaossu!"

The argument stopped as everyone turned to face the door. There stood a baby who looked to be about five years old, dressed in a black suit with a black fedora, a green chameleon resting on the brim of his hat.

"I am Reborn, the home tutor, and I am here to tort-tutor Sawada Ietsugu."

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>

**Hi guys! It's a new chapter! If you haven't voted already, please vote for your favorite pairing on my profile!**

**And thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and/or followed! It really brought up my motivation! Also, credit goes to Animeseris for giving me the idea to have Ietsugu abuse Tsuna mentally, although there will also be some physical abuse.**

**I'm so happy that I managed to get out this chapter so soon, but my updates will probably not always be as frequent as this. It might actually be very erratic, and I might not update for weeks if I have a lot of homework or tests. Thank you guys so much for reading this!**


	3. The True Colors of Sawada Ietsugu

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

**A/N: So I was logging into my account when I realized that the code I needed to enter was 5986. It was so weird! On that note, on to the chapter!**

* * *

><p>Everyone stared at the baby incredulously for a few moments before everything dissolved into chaos.<p>

"What the heck?! Babies can't be tutors!"

"Are you lost? Do you need help?"

"That's a great idea! We need to help him by giving him to a mental institution!"

"That's not very nice, Ie-kun."

"But he's obviously mentally insane! No baby can be a tutor!"

As Nana and Ietsugu argued, Tsuna and Reborn stared at each other curiously. Tsuna stared into those deep, obsidian eyes and thought, _This isn't an ordinary baby. He's too smart, too...mature._ Reborn watched Tsuna's emotions flit across his face and smiled inwardly when he saw that Tsuna had noticed that something was amiss. They turned to look at the arguing duo.

"We need to send him to a mental asylum!"

"No, we don't! His parents are probably worried sick about him!"

"No parent would worry about a mentally insane kid! He's under the delusion that he's a tutor!"

"He's probably just playing a game with his parents! We should help him get back home!"

"Ugh! Fine!"

They watched as Ietsugu threw up his hands and stormed up the steps to his room. Nana turned to Reborn, looking as if nothing had happened.

"Do you need help getting back home?" she asked helpfully as she bent down to Reborn's eye level.

Reborn shook his head, and after convincing Nana that he was one of those child prodigies and was perfectly qualified to be a tutor (which took all of five seconds), he hopped onto Tsuna's head.

"Take me to Ietsugu's room," he commanded. Tsuna nodded once in confirmation, making sure not to knock Reborn off his head, before heading to Ietsugu's room. His door was open, and they could see him playing a video game while laying on his bed.

"Baka-Ie," Reborn said as he jumped off the top of Tsuna's head and landed on the floor. Ietsugu looked up and his expression morphed into one of anger as he realized that the mentally insane baby and his useless younger brother were inside his room.

"What are you doing in here?! Get out! And don't call me Baka-Ie!" he yelled, his face red with anger. Reborn jumped up and landed a kick on his face. Ietsugu landed on the floor, knocked out. Reborn looked at him disappointingly.

"You're 100 years too early to be giving me orders," he said as looked down at Ietsugu's body. Tsuna couldn't stop the smile that spread over his face. _I think I'm going to get along quite well with this kid... _Reborn turned around, facing Tsuna.

"Take me to your room," he commanded. Tsuna was all too happy to comply.

* * *

><p>The first thing Reborn noticed about Tsuna's room was that it was clean. While Ietsugu's room had been incredibly messy (he almost couldn't even see the floor), Tsuna's room was spotless. Everything was nice and organized; not a thing was out of place. The desk was empty except for a lamp and a some stationary on it. The books on the bookshelf were ordered by the author's name, and the books in a series were ordered numerically. His clothes were all nicely hung up in the closet, his uniform ironed. Reborn turned to look at Tsuna.<p>

"Why would your mother clean your room and not Baka-Ie's room?" There was simply no way that a middle school student's room could be this clean without someone to clean it for them, and the most likely choice was the parent. Tsuna smiled lightly at him.

"Mom doesn't clean it. I do."

After staring at Tsuna for a few seconds and getting over the initial shock that a middle school student, a _boy_, could keep his room clean to this extent, Reborn examined the room some more. The walls were white, his bedspread was a light blue, and his curtains were also white. All in all, it seemed like a room that would belong to a very dull person, and from the events of that morning, Reborn knew that Tsuna was not a dull person. So the question was, why is his room so boring? When he voiced this question to Tsuna (in a more diplomatic way), Tsuna merely smiled again.

"Mom doesn't pay much attention to me. I don't want to bother her too much, because Ietsugu is also too much work to take care of, and I don't want to add on to her workload."

Reborn nodded as if agreeing with him, but inwardly, he snarled. _She probably doesn't even pay much attention to you in the first place because you are her "useless" child._ He shook his head. _This__ family is disgusting_. Tsuna looked at him oddly for a few seconds, as if wondering why Reborn was shaking his head. He then decided to just ignore it and walked over to his desk. Reborn watched as he took out his homework from his schoolbag and began to work on it. After a second of hesitation, Reborn jumped on top of Tsuna's desk and looked over his work. _He's getting at least half of these correct...it seems Iemitsu's information is seriously outdated. It doesn't seem like Tsuna only ever gets zeroes anymore._Reborn mentally cursed Iemitsu as he began to help Tsuna with his homework, helping him complete it in three hours, rather than his usual five._  
><em>

Somewhere in Italy, a certain blond idiot sneezed and shivered.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Tsuna woke up early as usual and went about his daily morning routines. It was only when he heard a request for espresso while he was cooking breakfast that he realized Reborn had been awake as well. <em>When did he get there?<em> He glanced up with surprise before complying with Reborn's request. After setting a steaming hot cup of espresso in front of Reborn, he continued making his breakfast, as well as Reborn's breakfast. They ate silently before Tsuna packed up his bag. He looked at Reborn questioningly, wondering if he was going to be accompanying him to school. Reborn shook his head silently in answer, and Tsuna left.

It was a quiet day. Actually, it wasn't really that quiet, with Sasagawa yelling "EXTREEEEEME!" while he ran. Tsuna smiled and greeted him, same as always. When he got to school he greeted Hibari and they went to the DC room, same as always. All in all, it seemed to be quite a normal day, which Tsuna found kind of odd. The arrival of a _baby_ of all things claiming to be _Sawada Ietsugu's_ tutor of all people was certainly _not_ normal. So when the golden boy of Namimori ran to Namimori Middle School in his boxers, there was really only one thing to say. _I knew it, _Tsuna thought as he watched Ietsugu stop in front of the school idol. _There's just no way things could suddenly go back to normal after something completely _ab_normal occurred last night. _Everyone watched as Sawada Ietsugu, the most sought after male in Namimori Middle School, confessed to the most sought after female in Namimori Middle School. Sort of.

"SASAGAWA KYOKO! PLEASE GO OUT WITH ME!" There was a stunned silence before everything suddenly erupted into complete and utter chaos.

"KYAAAAAA! IETSUGU-SAMA IS SO HOT!" Fangirls.

"Why is Ietsugu in his boxers?!" Most of the school population.

"Sawada! You may be the soccer team's captain, but that does not give you the excuse to run around the place half naked!" Teacher.

Hibari was getting ready to storm down the stairs and punish the foolish herbivore, his tonfas out and ready, when Mochida Kensuke stomped over to Ietsugu and whacked him with a shinai, effectively knocking Ietsugu out of whatever bout of insanity had suddenly overtaken him.

"SAWADA IETSUGU! I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL! THE PRIZE WILL BE SASAGAWA KYOKO!"

Ietsugu ignored him as he looked down and immediately screamed, "WHY AM I IN MY BOXERS!?"

Through all of this, Tsuna laughed hysterically as he watched the events through the window of the DC room. Next to him, Hibari had stopped and was also looking through the window, an amused smirk adorning his face. He frowned immediately when he heard the challenge.

"Herbivore, get to class. I need to…_teach _these herbivores a lesson," Hibari said as he turned around to face Tsuna.

"Okay!" Tsuna smiled at him, his euphoria at seeing the object of his terror being publicly humiliated still slightly there. Hibari reached out and patted his head in approval. Tsuna closed an eye, making sure his hair wouldn't get in his eyes as he peered up at Hibari. When Hibari left to go punish the students, Tsuna picked up his bag and made his way to his classroom without any incident, considering everyone was preoccupied with something at the moment.

* * *

><p>Reborn had been hoping for something more when he shot Ietsugu with the Dying Will bullet. After watching Ietsugu's expression morph into one of shock, probably because he hadn't expected a baby tutor to be carrying a gun, he shot Ietsugu in the forehead. He had seen Ietsugu watching the school idol walking by, and decided to <em>help<em> the boy confess the feelings that may or may not have been there (it really didn't matter to Reborn anymore; he just wanted to see how Ietsugu would feel when he gets publicly humiliated). After shooting him with the bullet, he watched as Ietsugu was "reborn", his clothes ripping getting ripped off his body.

"REBRON! I WILL BOOST MY REPUTATION BY BECOMING SASAGAWA KYOKO'S BOYFRIEND WITH MY DYING WILL!"

As Reborn watched Ietsugu run off, his face darkened in anger. _That conniving bastard...I will never allow him to take the throne of Vongola with this kind of mindset. _With that, Reborn plotted all the ways he could _train_ Ietsugu to become a good mafia boss (which seems really contradictory). _I need to make him kind...kind enough to accept those who come to him for help, but not kind enough to help his enemies...I need to make him less selfish...I basically need to make him the opposite of what he is now. Except for his intelligence and athletic ability. Those are fine._ Even with all this plotting, Reborn just couldn't seem to stop himself from thinking that the younger twin would be easier to reform into a good mafia boss...

* * *

><p>The day passed without any further incident. Hibari had effectively managed to put an end to the "crowding" and any dueling that might have gone on. Everyone went to their respective classes except for Ietsugu, who needed to go home and get a change of clothes and also a first aid kit, and Mochida, who needed to go to the infirmary to get his wounds treated, which had been inflicted upon him for "trying to incite a herbivorous fight". Tsuna walked home, slightly smiling, remembering the events of the morning. When he got home, he put down his things and got ready to do his homework when Ietsugu slammed open the door and walked up to him, his face shadowed over with a deep anger. In school, he had acted as if the whole thing was a joke, and Tsuna had thought that Ietsugu wasn't mad at all. Now, he could see that he had been horribly, horribly wrong. His eyes widened with fear as his smile slipped from his face, almost as if it were never there. Ietsugu had just been putting on a farce for everyone to see while he had been stewing in anger and frustration this whole time. <em>I should have known...why didn't I figure it out sooner? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!<em> He watched fearfully as Ietsugu moved closer and closer. _Mom isn't here...she's probably out shopping...and Kyoya is out patrolling on the other side of the town..._He closed his eyes as he resigned himself to his fate.

The beating started with a punch to the stomach. _I think I felt something break..._ Tsuna doubled over, choking on his own spit as his breath was knocked out of him. Ietsugu then kneed Tsuna's chest so that he was forced to straighten up again. Tsuna could feel his ribs crack as Ietsugu lifted a leg up and kicked Tsuna's back, forcing him onto the floor. He proceeded to punch and kick Tsuna over and over again until Tsuna could no longer see anything through the haze of pain. Then, Ietsugu kicked Tsuna out of the house.

"I don't want to see your face again tonight," he snarled as he slammed the door shut, locking it. Tsuna lay in the walkway, facing the sky. He watched as the birds flew across the wide expanse of the slowly darkening sky as the clouds drifted by slowly. _I wish I could be like them...just flying around in the sky, not a care in the world. I wish I could be free..._He closed his eyes as a tear slowly fell, glistening on his cheek. He barely heard it as Hibari yelled out his name in horror, running towards him, uncaring about his reputation.

"TSUNAYOSHI!"

_Ah...Kyoya? He never yells...I wonder what happened?_ He attempted to move and was barely able to lift up a hand before he had to put it down when a burst of pain shot through his body. He flinched in pain as Hibari lifted his head up.

"Tsunayoshi?! Tsunayoshi! Shit! Stay with me!"

Everything Hibari said sounded like it was being muffled by a blanket. His eyes slid closed.

"Tsunayoshi! Don't close your eyes! Dammit!"

That was the last thing Tsuna heard as his eyes slid shut and he succumbed to the darkness.

* * *

><p><strong>I am going to be evil and leave you here. I'll try to get the nest chapter out ASAP. Thank you so much for the reviews, follows, andor favorites! Until next time!**


	4. Hospital Visit

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Hibari hadn't always been as strong as he is now.<p>

When Hibari was seven, he had been a happy child. He had been, and still was, introverted, but he was happy regardless. He had two loving parents, he always got the top score on tests in school, and he had been fairly innocent, still oblivious to the true horrors of the world. It was only when he had come home from school, ecstatic to get back to his parents and tell them about the 100 he had gotten on the test (though he didn't show it outwardly), that he had been exposed to the true horror of society. He had come home to walls painted crimson, two loving parents lying on the floor, and everything he had ever thought he had known about life shattered into little pieces. He could still remember the scene: the blood pooling around his parents, the coppery smell of blood, his parents' lifeless eyes...

The forensic scientists had examined the bodies of his parents, stating that their death was caused by multiple stab wounds in the gut and the chest. It was probably the work of a robber, the detectives had said—_a detective, just like his father—_or maybe someone who had a grudge against them. They were the best known crime-fighting duo in Namimori, after all. His father had solved many crimes, and his mother had been the one to sentence these criminals to whatever punishment they deserved. It wouldn't have been a baseless assumption to say that his parents had been killed because of a grudge.

Hibari didn't really care about anything the police said. All he knew was that his parents, the best parents a child could ever ask for, were dead, and that it was probably because of a criminal. It was then and there that he had decided to become stronger; strong enough so that he could defeat all the lawbreakers, strong enough to make Namimori a crime less town, strong enough to prevent anything like this from happening to anyone else, strong enough to protect anyone else he might grow close to. So when he had seen his best friend, his only friend, lying on the pavement in front of his own house looking so lifeless, he had feared the worst.

He had dropped his tonfas, his mind going numb with the shock as his brain tried to register what he was seeing. Before he even realized it, his body was already running towards the prone figure on the ground as his mouth opened and he shouted his friend's name, the loudest he had ever been in years.

"TSUNAYOSHI!" _Crimson blood splattered on the walls—_

He reached Tsuna just as his eyes were about to close. He saw as Tsuna fought to keep his eyes open and panicked when he saw them sliding closed. He barely noticed as he lifted up Tsuna's head

"Tsunayoshi?! Tsunayoshi! Shit! Stay with me!" _Lifeless eyes, staring at him—_

Tsuna tried to keep his eyes open, but they kept sliding closed. Hibari had never cursed before, but he barely heard it as he let out the word that he had only ever heard spineless herbivores saying as they tried to run away from him.

"Tsunayoshi! Don't close your eyes! Dammit!" _His world crashing down around him, everything gone, the realization that he would never see those loving smiles again—_

Hibari stayed kneeling, his eyes open with shock as he relived the horror of finding his parents dead in his own house, his safe haven. His hands were still holding Tsuna's head, but he didn't seem to notice anything anymore. That was how Kusakabe Tetsuya found the strongest and most feared man in Namimori five minutes later.

"Kyo-san-oh..." he trailed off as Tsuna's body came into view and he was able to actually see the whole picture. Kusakabe saw the shock in Hibari's eyes, the rigidity of his body, and he knew. He knew that something horrible had happened, and he knew that he was going through something very serious. But Kusakabe knew that now wasn't the time for this as he examined Tsuna's body.

"Kyo-san. Kyo-san. Kyo-san!"

Hibari's mind finally seemed to catch up to the present as his eyes gained a sudden clarity. He gazed down at the head he was cradling an immediately sprung into action. He checked for a pulse-_thank god it was still there_-and he picked up Tsuna gently.

"Kusakabe, go to the hospital and tell them to prepare a bed." Kusakabe nodded, relieved that his leader had come back to his senses-_it was unnatural, seeing the great Hibari Kyoya look so _weak-and ran to the hospital to follow through on his superior's orders. Hibari stood up slowly and walked as fast as he could, taking great care to not jostle the body in his arms. He winced every time he heard a groan and mentally cursed whomever had done this. _I will kill them,_ he thought as he carefully made his way to Namimori Hospital.

When he arrived, the nurses immediately took Tsuna from him and put him on a gurney. Hibari watched as they rolled away his one and only friend, the only one he had ever showed his smiles to (no matter how rare), the only one he had ever laughed with (inwardly, of course-if someone saw the great Hibari laughing out loud, they would probably piss in their pants), and he took an involuntary step forward. He stopped as he realized what he was doing. _Stop. He's not dead. I'll see him again. I'll see him smile again. I'll see him laugh again._

And like a good Namimori citizen, Hibari asked—more like demanded—to know when he would be able to visit Sawada Tsunayoshi. When the trembling receptionist gave him his answer, he nodded and walked out of the hospital.

"Kusakabe."

His right-hand man walked up to him from his spot next to the front doors of the hospital.

"Yes, Kyo-san?"

Hibari began to walk to where he had come from.

"Continue patrolling Namimori; I'm going back home to rest."

Kusakabe bowed and went to spread the order to the rest of the DC members.

Hibari walked to the spot where he had dropped his tonfas. He stared at the Sawadas' walkway as he bent to pick them up. He could still see some blood on the pavement, and his mind flashed back to that horrifying moment when he had thought that his best friend was dead. _This will not happen again_, he vowed, as he turned around and headed to his house, where he would wait agonizingly until he was able to visit Tsuna.

* * *

><p>When Reborn had gone back to the Sawada household after surveying the town (one could never know where an assassin might pop up), he had not expected to see blood staining a spot on the walkway, nor had he expected to see his student so happy. He stared at Ietsugu suspiciously as he watched him do his homework happily. <em>No one would be happy doing their homework...wait, that's not the actual problem! Wouldn't someone usually be embarrassed if he had been publicly humiliated?! And wouldn't a person usually see a baby holding a gun and wonder where the hell they got it from?! What is going on here?<em>

Reborn showed none of his inner turmoil as he watched Ietsugu completing his homework with a smile on his face. He felt like something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it. _Ietsugu is home, doing his homework, Nana is out shopping, and Tsuna is...wait. Tsuna?_

Reborn whipped out his gun and pointed it straight at Ietsugu.

"Where. Is. Tsuna."

Ietsugu turned around and smiled charmingly—not something you'd do to someone pointing a gun at you.

"I don't know. Thank god for that. It'd be nice if he never came back."

Reborn couldn't sense any lies in his statement, which only made him more frustrated.

"What did you do to Tsuna?"

Ietsugu's smile grew larger.

"He got what he deserved. He shouldn't have been born; I'm the only one mom needs, and I'm the one that everyone likes. No one needs someone like Dame-Tsuna in this world. He just got what was coming his way."

Reborn's eyes darkened at every word. With a calm anger, he released his killing intent and watched as Ietsugu finally started to look scared.

"You didn't answer my question. What. Did. You . Do. To. Tsuna," Reborn hissed as his eyes narrowed to slits.

Ietsugu stared at him and seemed to come to some sort of realization.

"You're just a mentally insane five year old claiming to be my tutor! Why should I tell you?!"

Reborn jumped up and kicked Ietsugu down. Before Ietsugu knew what was going on, Reborn had his CZ75 cocked and pointed at his forehead.

"I think it's time I tell you what I'm really here for. I am Reborn, the World's Strongest Hitman, and I have been sent to train you to be the tenth boss of the most influential mafia family in Europe."

Ietsugu, who had been attempting to away from Reborn's gun, stopped wriggling around and froze with shock. Reborn watched as his eyes shone with greed.

"I'm going to be the most influential person in Europe?"

Reborn looked at his greedy eyes as his hand clenched around his gun. He sneered.

"I could take that all away from you in one shot. Just one pull of this trigger, and I could rob you of your future."

Ietsugu glanced at the gun and frantically began squirming again, trying harder to get away from the gun.

"What did you do to Tsuna?" Reborn asked venemously.

Ietsugu paled.

"I just hit him a few times! I didn't do anything serious! I swear!"

Reborn could sense the lies that this...worm_—no, he was even lower that that—_spouted, and reveled in the fear he instilled in the horrible creature. He jumped off and kicked Ietsugu unconscious when he had started to rise with a relieved expression on his face. He left Ietsugu on the floor and left the house. _According to what Ietsugu said—more like didn't say—Tsuna probably has a lot of serious injuries. If someone saw him, then they would have probably taken him to the hospital..._

With that, Reborn immediately ran off to Namimori Hospital.

* * *

><p>When he asked the receptionist what room Sawada Tsunayoshi was in, she refused to tell him and instead picked him up and asked who he belonged to. Reborn was seriously considering attacking this woman. It didn't matter if she was a civilian or didn't know his identity; no one picks up the greatest hitman in the world and asks who he <em>belongs<em> to. No one. When a silvery-gray eyed teenager stalked forward and took him from the receptionist, Reborn's mood dropped even more. He began to kick, trying to get out of the teen's grip. _Damn these short legs. Damn this five year old body. Damn this damn cur—_

"Tell me Sawada Tsunayoshi's room number."

When Reborn heard these words, he immediately stopped kicking and listened attentively. The gray-eyed teen glanced at him once and looked up at the receptionist again as she shakily typed in the name. When she gave him the room number, he abruptly turned, and still carrying Reborn, went as fast as he could to Sawada Tsunayoshi's room without running. Reborn stayed in his hands, not questioning how the teen knew where he wanted to go. _Dammit, move faster! _Seeing Tsuna's condition came first. Everything could come after.

Reborn didn't know what he had been expecting when the teen finally reached the designated room and opened the door. All he knew was that he had not expected to see the brown-haired boy attached to an IV drip with an oxygen mask over his face. He hadn't even realized that the teen had stopped in the doorway and was staring at the prone figure on the bed anxiously with a bit of anger—not at the kid, but at the person who had inflicted the damage. A nurse came into the room.

"Tell me his condition."

Reborn looked up from the bed when he heard the teen talk to the nurse who had just walked in. The nurse paled when she saw the teen—_what the heck? Why was everyone so afraid of a teenager?—_and hurried to comply to his demand._  
><em>

"Y-yes! Sawada Tsunayoshi has 3 broken ribs, one of which was poking him in the lung, and 6 more cracked ribs. He also has bruises and scratches all over his body. He has a concussion too, most likely caused by being hit in the head with a blunt object."

The anger in both the teen's eyes and the baby's eyes grew more and more as the list went on. The nurse seemed to grow progressively frightened, most likely from the glares that were coming at her with ferocious intensity.

"You may go."

At these words, the nurse turned on her heel and fled as fast as she could, away from the deathly aura that the two were emitting. When she left, the teen sat down in one of the seats and finally let go of Reborn. They both watched the rise and fall of the bed occupant's chest for a while before they finally spoke to each other.

"Why are you visiting Sawada Tsunayoshi?" the teen asked Reborn as he turned to look at him with cold gray eyes.

"I am his twin brother's tutor and became worried when he didn't come home," Reborn replied. He was slightly surprised when he realized that he had, indeed, been worried about the smaller twin that was currently in a serious condition. The teen accepted his reason with a grunt and slightly relaxed when he learned that the five year old was not a threat to Tsuna.

"Who are you?" Reborn asked curiously. Not just anyone could instill such fear in full grown adults.

"Hibari Kyoya."

Reborn's mind clicked as everything fell into place. While he had been surveying Namimori, he had heard the name "Hibari Kyoya" many times. From what he had gathered, this teen in front of him was the strongest and most feared person in Namimori, which certainly explained everyone's reactions. Reborn's next question—_how do you know Tsuna?—_ died in his throat when he heard a groan coming from the bed. Both of their eyes zeroed in on the bed immediately, and they watched as the occupant slowly opened his eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: You guys are awesome! I'm so happy! More than 100 follows, and I only had three chapters out! As you can see, this really boosted my motivation. Thank you for all of the reviews, favorites, and/or follows! You guys are the best! Love you all! ^_^ See you next time!**


	5. The Rain Falls…

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Tsuna felt like he was floating.<p>

It felt like he was submerged in water; there was a light above him that he seemed to be moving towards slowly. He waited patiently as he moved closer to the surface of the water and broke free from it. He groaned as the light shined brightly in his eyes and shut them before opening them again slowly. Everything looked blurry. _Hmm? What's this thing over my mouth?_ He reached up to take it off, but stopped when he realized he couldn't feel his hand. _What?_ His breathing quickened as he panicked internally. _What's going on? Why can't I feel anything?_ Everything around him sharpened with a sudden clarity as he frantically tried to lift up his hands. He felt someone gently begin to pat his head, and he slowly relaxed at the comforting sensation. As his breathing slowed, he looked up at the person who was petting his head. He was slightly surprised to see the silvery-gray eyes of Hibari Kyoya, who seemed to be attempting to hide his concern. He stopped petting Tsuna when he saw that he had calmed down.

They stayed next to each other as Tsuna took in his surroundings. _I'm in a hospital, and I have an oxygen mask over my face. _He looked over to his side. _ I am also attached to an IV drip. Wonderful._ He looked up when he saw Hibari shift in his seat from out of the corner of his eye. Tsuna saw Hibari looking at him with an indecipherable look on his face as he slid a notepad towards Tsuna. He tilted his head to the side. _What's wrong?_

Hibari glanced at the oxygen mask covering Tsuna's mouth and shook his head. Tsuna looked at him oddly but decided to let it drop.

"Do you feel okay?"

Tsuna's eyes widened as he looked towards where the voice had come from. He saw Reborn standing on the table next to the bed. _When did he get there? I feel bad for not noticing him..._He saw Reborn staring at him expectantly and remembered that he had asked Tsuna a question. Tsuna nodded, and Reborn jumped down to sit on the bed next to Tsuna, careful of the tube connecting him to the IV drip. Tsuna had an oxygen mask over his face, so he couldn't talk, and Hibari and Reborn didn't know each other very well. Everyone sat in silence, Hibari watching Tsuna for any signs of discomfort. Now that he knew Tsuna was alright, Reborn began to brood over his conversation with Ietsugu before he had left. _Why does Ietsugu hate Tsuna so much? I'll need to look in to this more..._He inwardly winced as he recalled Ietsugu's words. _He has such a big ego...I'll need to beat that out of him._ His eyes gleamed with sadistic pleasure.

Tsuna burrowed himself into the bed and softly sighed. He was starting to get tired. He glanced at Hibari and Reborn and smiled lightly. _It's really nice, having people who actually care about me..._His eyes closed as he slipped away into dreamland. When Reborn saw that he had fallen asleep, he got up and walked to the door.

As Reborn left, he turned back and glanced at the sleeping figure on the bed. Then, his gaze turned and landed on the gray eyed teen sitting next to the bed, seemingly watching the bed's occupant indifferently. He closed his eyes briefly and opened them again with a new resolve. _I will make Sawada Ietsugu's life a living hell._

* * *

><p>As soon as the child left, Hibari let his shoulders relax as he silently sighed. His indifferent face softened the slightest bit as he gazed at the figure in the bed. He had always been strong, but this...this event seemed to make it more difficult to keep on his strong facade. He was the one who upheld the law in Namimori. It would be troublesome if he showed any weaknesses and had an enemy exploit it. He couldn't show his emotions, or it could be taken as a sign of weakness, but...<em>just this one time is okay, isn't it?<em> He leaned forward and gripped Tsuna's hand as he listened to his breathing. He closed his eyes as he took in the warmth of Tsuna's hand, just wanting, no, _needing_ to know that he was still alive.

Seeing his best friend lying in his own blood had brought back...a _traumatic_ memory. He didn't want to see anyone he cared about look like that ever again. He could still remember everything. It was the reason he had decided to be like those carnivorous animals. He was at the top of the food chain; he would not be beaten by those weak little herbivores that relied on dirty tricks to survive. He was not a coward. He was not weak. However, seeing Tsuna lying so lifelessly had brought back a multitude of memories. Memories of when he _was_ weak; memories of when he had been just another innocent seven year old. Memories of the feeling of helplessness: _he couldn't even save his parents_. He couldn't afford to be weak; otherwise, the things important to him would be taken away again._  
><em>

He let go of Tsuna's hand, his expression back to normal. His eyes shined with resolution as he stared at Tsuna and stood to leave. _I will not let this happen again._

* * *

><p>Tsuna was released from the hospital two months later.<p>

He went back to school the next day, as if nothing had happened. He ignored the disapproving glint in Hibari's eyes as he walked into the building. He obviously didn't approve of Tsuna going to school right after being released from the hospital. It was nice to know that Hibari cared more about his well-being than the fact that he hadn't been to school in two months, but he couldn't afford to miss anymore classes. Hibari had been dropping off the schoolwork that Tsuna had been missing while he had been in the hospital, so Tsuna was sort of caught up on the material, but he still didn't understand most of it.

His first school day back was almost the same as usual. He still got ridiculed for failing at everything. No one seemed to have cared about his extended absence. The only difference was the fact that Ietsugu had a lot of bruises and scratches. _I wonder why..._Tsuna thought as he was tripped up by someone in the hallway. He stood up after rubbing his nose, acting as if he hadn't just face-planted on the floor. The person who had tripped him was swiftly bitten to death, as were everyone in the hallway. Tsuna just continued on obliviously as he moved to his next class. It was only when he reached his class that he realized he hadn't been bullied in any way while he had been on his way to his classroom (besides that one person who tripped him). _Weird..._ he shrugged as he sat down. What ever the reason, it was nice that they had stopped bullying him.

When it was lunchtime, Tsuna had been surprised to see Hibari waiting for him outside of the classroom, the students being careful to maintain at least a 3 meter radius around him. After tilting his head curiously, Tsuna fell into step next to Hibari as they made their way to the roof. They ate lunch silently, Hibari vigilantly watching Tsuna to make sure he wasn't in any pain. Tsuna squirmed as he sat under Hibari's watchful gaze. He was about to open his mouth to ask why Hibari was staring at him, but someone interrupted before he could. Tsuna stared at the person standing at the door he had just slammed open. The person stared at him in shock before a smile forced itself onto his face.

"Hahaha! Am I interrupting anything?"

Tsuna stared into the eyes of Yamamoto Takeshi as he slowly shook his head no. He watched as the smile dropped a bit.

"Can I...eat lunch with you guys?"

Tsuna nodded and scooted to make room for Yamamoto. The smile returned back full force, some of it less fake. They sat in a small circle, eating silently. Hibari glared at Yamamoto suspiciously as he ate the lunch that Tsuna had made for him. Yamamoto squirmed a bit, and Tsuna could only think about how glad he was that the gaze was no longer pointed towards him. _Sorry, Yamamoto-san..._

During the fifteen minutes they had left, none of them spoke a word. Yamamoto's smile slipped off his face bit by bit until he was no longer smiling. Their lunch break was quiet and awkward; Hibari kept switching his victim every so often, alternating between making sure Tsuna was okay and making sure that Yamamoto wouldn't do anything funny. They both sighed with relief when the bell rang, looking at each other with the same expression on their face as they hurriedly made their way to their classroom, leaving Hibari on the roof. Tsuna made sure to wave goodbye before disappearing, thankful to be free from Hibari's intense stare. Yamamoto just left as quickly as possible, not wanting to be subject to Hibari's glare any longer.

Hibari stared at Yamamoto's retreating figure and thought, _If he tries to do anything weird...I'll bite him to death._

Yamamoto shivered.

* * *

><p>Yamamoto had been a happy child, his emotions always showing freely on his face.<p>

Everything changed when his mother died. He had been running home, eager to tell his parents about getting into the baseball team, when he saw his mother waiting for him in front of Takesushi. He smiled and ran faster, wanting to reach her as soon as possible and tell her the news. Before he knew what was happening, he heard a honking noise and turned to see a truck going straight at him. He looked at the truck with horror, only vaguely hearing his mother yelling his name over and over. He watched as the truck came closer and closer...

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground, his mother in front of him. He smiled, thinking that she had saved him, and they were both okay. He looked at the other side of the street and saw something odd. He strained his eyes to look at what it was, and saw..._legs?_ His smile slipped away as he realized what he was seeing. He glanced at his mother with dawning horror as he realized that the legs on the other side of the street weren't just any pair of legs...they were his _mother's_ legs. He screamed in horror as his father rushed out of their sushi restaurant, wondering what was wrong. He watched as his father dropped to his knees, his face white, trying to take in the scene in front of him. He watched as the truck driver shakily called the hospital, but Takeshi knew already. He knew it was too late. His breaths came faster and faster and his vision grew hazy as he gazed at his mother's body—the top half of her body—and his vision grew black.

The next thing he knew, he was dressed in a black suit, watching his mother's coffin slowly being placed into the ground. Everyone around him was crying. His mother's relatives, his father's relatives, even people he didn't know. But he just stared. He stared as her coffin lowered, he stared at everyone's crying faces, and he stared at the ground. He watched as his mother's parents made their way up to him and slapped him in the face. He landed on the ground, his hand covering his cheek as he stared at them with the same shock that had been on his face since the accident.

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" his grandmother yelled as she cried into her handkerchief. "SHE DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Yamamoto barely noticed his father slapping her in the face as he glared at her with the utmost anger. He barely noticed as his grandfather led his wife away. _It's my fault? _His mind went back to the scene of the accident. If he hadn't run across the street without looking, if he had moved out of the way, then...his mother might still be alive. His eyes widened with the realization. _It really is my fault...__  
><em>

He looked up when his father bent down in front of him.

"Listen to me, Takeshi. It's _not_ your fault. None of this is your fault. So...just smile again, please?"

He looked into his father's eyes. _Lies, _he thought as he looked at his father. He could see the pain, the sadness...the hope. Hope that his son would be able to recover. Hope that he would be able to see his son smile again. And Takeshi smiled, pushing down all his feelings, just focusing on smiling. He saw his father smile back at him sadly, and he faltered for a bit before his smile returned again. _Why? Why doesn't he notice anything?_ When it started raining, he felt a small tear trickle down his face. _It's fitting isn't it, mom? God gifted you with your favorite weather for your own funeral..._

Before he knew it, forcing smiles at everyone just seemed natural. Everyone only saw what they wanted to see; a happy-go-lucky, baseball-obsessed idiot. He hated it. He hated his life; he hated all the plastic smiles surrounding him; he hated everything. The only thing he couldn't hate was baseball. His mother had loved baseball; there was no way he could just quit it.

He was constantly surrounded with phony things. Phony smiles, phony faces, and lies. Lies everywhere. People lying to him about being his friend, lying to him about being sorry about his loss, lying to him about caring about him. One day, he'd had enough of this. He stared at all the fake smiles and all of their lies. He suddenly felt overwhelmed. He needed to get away. After politely excusing himself, he grabbed his lunch and sprinting up to the roof. _No one will bother me there..._

He slammed the door open and stared in shock at the people on the roof. He stared into the caramel eyes of Sawada Tsunayoshi and at the silvery-gray eyes of Hibari Kyoya. He stared at their closeness, and thought, _it'd be nice if I could be close to somebody..._He shook his head and remembered to force a smile on his face—_remembered? Since when did he need to be reminded?—_before putting on his usual facade. He stared into the wonderfully honest eyes of Sawada Tsunayoshi and felt almost free. He was free from all of the phoniness of the people surrounding him. Before he knew what was going on, he was asking Tsuna if he could eat with them—_since when did he need someone's permission? People always asked him if they could join him for lunch first—_as he anxiously waited for the answer. He fidgeted a bit, waiting for the answer, hoping he would say yes—_why did he care so much?—_before smiling again when he heard an affirmative answer.

He moved forward and sat next to Tsuna, eating his lunch. He felt comfortable. Even with those steely gray eyes boring into him, wondering why the baseball ace was even here, he felt comfortable. He never noticed as his smile slowly disappeared; he never noticed as his face began to show his real emotions, ones he hadn't revealed in years. When the bell rang, he had a relieved expression on his face as he and Tsuna glanced at each other. He turned away when he realized he could no longer feel a smile on his face. His eyes widened slightly as he realized that he had stopped smiling some time during their lunch break. He pasted another smile on quickly before rushing away from the roof, away from the piercing gaze of the Disciplinary Committee leader that suddenly seemed so scary, away from the honest gaze of Sawada Tsunayoshi that seemed to have the ability to stare into his soul.

He ran into the classroom and was immediately bombarded with fake smiles, and lies everywhere. He fell into his routine again: fail at the written subjects, excel in PE, and practice baseball for three hours straight to forget about everything. He went home feeling as if nothing had changed, already forgetting what it had felt like to be able to just drop his act, forget about smiling, and actually _feel_ something, even if it was just for fifteen minutes. He smiled at his father, the only one he still held dear, and went to bed to dream about the accident again, just like he always id.

Before he knew it, he was on the roof again, tentatively asking if he could join them for lunch again.

* * *

><p>When Yamamoto Tsuyoshi had rushed out of his restaurant after hearing his son's horrified screaming, he had not expected to see his wife cut in half. He could see her upper body in front of his son, and he slowly moved his gaze to where Takeshi was staring to see her lower body. All the blood rushed out of his face as his legs weakened and he fell to the floor. He could only see her body, the blood, the truck driver frantically punching numbers into his phone...<em>Takeshi<em>. He looked at his son, his horrified eyes reaching the traumatized face of his son, his only son..._I need to go to him. I need to help him. I need to..._

He watched as the police and ambulances arrived and declared his beloved wife dead. He barely noticed as they attempted to talk to him. His vision seemed to have tunneled; he could only see his son staring at his mother's body with shock and pain. He cursed his inability to move. He cursed all the gods up there for letting his wife, the most beautiful, kind person in the world, die. Most of all, he cursed himself. He cursed himself for not being able to move; he cursed himself for not being able to comfort his one and only son; he cursed himself for not going outside and waiting for Takeshi with his wife._  
><em>

He watched over his son worriedly as each day passed. He could see the pain, the shock, and the sadness that was on his face. Takeshi's face hadn't changed expression at all since the accident. He looked at everything now with the same horrified face, as if his face had frozen with the shock and could no longer go back to normal. Tsuyoshi was tense; he stayed as close to his son as he could, not wanting the same thing to happen again. He spent many sleepless nights, constantly seeing his wife's body strewn on the street. He was tired and constantly anxious. When he heard his wife's mother blame his son for her daughter's death, he snapped. Before he knew what was happening, he slapped her face and yelled at her. How could she blame Takeshi for this? Couldn't she see how badly Takeshi was taking everything?

He bent in front of his son and watched as his eyes slowly gained a new emotion: guilt.

"Listen to me, Takeshi. It's _not_ your fault. None of this is your fault."

He stared at his beloved son's face worriedly.

"So...just smile again, please?" he added desperately. He would do anything to see his son smile again. Now that it was just him and his son, he didn't want to live his whole life never seeing another vibrant smile from his only son. He watched as Takeshi lowered his head and let his bangs cover his eyes before he lifted his head again and smiled at Tsuyoshi. Tsuyoshi smiled back at him. He could only hope that this would be the first step to healing his son.

He realized his mistake too late. Before he knew it, Takeshi was smiling at everybody. It should have made him happy, but...it was almost the same as seeing Takeshi as a child, staring at everything with a traumatized look on his face. His smiles no longer held the same brightness they had when Tsuyoshi's wife was still alive. His smiles could no longer wash away all the stress and worries that Tsuyoshi felt after a long day of work. And he cursed himself once again. He cursed himself for doing this to his son; he cursed himself for not being able to do anything about it. He could only smile at Takeshi and then stare worriedly at him when he wasn't looking. He asked Takeshi if he was happy multiple times, asking for a completely honest answer. And Tsuyoshi always died inside when he smiled and answered back with a "Yes dad, I'm really happy." He could only hope that God would gift him with someone, anyone, who would be able to turn all the fake smiles into something more real.

When Takeshi came home and smiled at him with a smile that might not have been completely fake, he thanked whatever entity was out there and hoped that the one who had managed to do this would be able to rid his son's smile of all the phoniness in it.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hi guys! I had some writer's block so I kind of didn't know what to write for three days. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and/or follows! I'm really happy about how many I have already. Also, I'll be closing the poll for the pairings soon. Even though I put up a poll for the pairings, I must warn you that this fic is not centered on romance, so there will only be some fluff or something here and there. I will not focus on the pairing, as it is _not_ the main focus of this fic. Sorry if I disappoint anyone! One last thing: do I need to change the story's rating to M, or am I still safe?**


	6. …And the Sky Clears

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

**A/N: Hey guys! Merry Christmas! I decided to write a small Christmas special at the end of the chapter, so enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Tsuna watched as the red, rubbery ball zoomed towards his face.<p>

_Ah...I can't move. Wonderful._

He closed his eyes just in time to feel the ball hit his face straight on. He landed on his butt, opening his eyes one by one while he rubbed his nose in pain. He heard the sound of the whistle that signified the end of the volleyball game they were playing in PE class.

"Team A wins! Team B will clean up the gym!"

He watched as his team groaned in disappointment. Tsuna watched as the teacher walked away, leaving the students to sort out their jobs by themselves. He watched as the winning team walked towards the locker rooms, laughing and talking. He watched as his teammates' eyes suddenly lit up as they realized something. He sighed with resignation, already knowing what would happen next.

"Hey, Dame-Tsuna! Why don't you clean up the gym today? We all have things to do!"

Tsuna just held out his hand, waiting for someone to give him a broom. The last time he had tried to refuse them...let's just say, it didn't end well. His _teammates_ eagerly shoved one into his hand as they walked away.

"Thanks, Dame-Tsuna! At least you're good for something!"

Tsuna closed his eyes as he sweeped the gym floor. He heard them chattering as they walked, talking about various things.

"Man, I can't believe we lost!"

"I know, right?! It's all because of Dame-Tsuna!"

"It's not fair! Team A had Ietsugu, and we all know he's the best sportsman! Coach should have given them Dame-Tsuna to balance them out!"

"It's really amazing how bad Dame-Tsuna can be at everything with such an awesome brother!"

"Right?!"

Tsuna slumped a bit as he listened to their fading voices. _Ietsugu this, Ietsugu that..._ He cleaned the gym, finishing quickly due to the amount of practice he had in doing so. He slowly walked away, taking his time in taking a shower and leaving the school. He knew no one would care if he came back from school late. He froze when he heard voices on the way out of the school building, immediately hiding behind the wall next to the school doors. He really didn't want to risk being beat up again. His eyes widened as he realized that he recognized those voices. _Yamamoto-kun and...Ietsugu?_

"...batting average is dropping recently. Do you think you could...maybe give me some advice?"

"Sure!"

Tsuna shivered as he heard the honey-coated voice of his older twin. Whenever he sounded like that, it never meant anything good.

"Thanks!"

"Just give up."

Both Tsuna and Yamamoto froze when they heard what Ietsugu said.

"What?"

"I said, 'just give up'."

"Y-yeah, but...why?"

Tsuna closed his eyes as he listened, sliding down the wall silently as he huddled in on himself, not wanting to hear anymore, but not being able to move his legs for fear of being caught by Ietsugu.

"You said that your batting average had been going down, right?"

Yamamoto nodded as he stared at Ietsugu, his eyes bright with desperation.

"The only thing you're good at his baseball! Everyone only likes you because you're good at baseball. You can't do anything else well. You can't even get good grades! If you can't play baseball well anymore, then no one will care about you anymore. You should just give up. Give up on baseball, give up on school, give up on life."

Tsuna felt a tear slip down his face as he listened. No one should have to hear these things. No one. He could almost hear it as Yamamoto's heart shattered into pieces. He opened his eyes and turned to look around the wall, watching as Yamamoto looked down as his bangs shadowed his eyes. Tsuna forced himself to turn his gaze to Ietsugu, who was looking at Yamamoto with a slight smirk as he turned away and began to walk home. He cursed his paralyzed body. _Why am I so weak? Why can't I be stronger? _

_Why can't I help anyone?_

* * *

><p>Reborn had seen all the darkness of the world.<p>

He had grown up in the underworld; he learned about the darkness in people's hearts early in his life. Thank god he had, because he would be dead by now if he hadn't. He had seen everything; he had seen all the lies people said to get what they wanted, and he made sure to never, _ever_, become one of those poor fools who got caught up in those lies. He had seen people lie to get money; he had seen people lie to gain someone's loyalty and them stab them in the back; he had seen people lie to get someone killed. He had seen people skillfully use their words to manipulate others into doing what they want. He had always thought that these lies and manipulations would always be kept in the underworld. He always thought that these evil, dark things would always be kept away from the civilians, the innocents, the light.

When he had been spying on Sawada Ietsugu, he had not expected those evil, twisted words to be uttered. He watched with slowly growing anger as he crushed Yamamoto Takeshi's will to live. He wanted to move; to kick Ietsugu's head and knock some sense (hopefully) into him. If that didn't work, he'd just knock him out and drag him home. But he couldn't. He just kept listening on with growing horror and anger. He couldn't move. Hearing such manipulative, cruel words from someone who was supposed to be innocent, someone who hadn't been exposed to the true darkness of the world...it was just something that Reborn couldn't seem to absorb. He could almost see all the mafia bosses he had killed (on Vongola Nono's orders) in the face of Sawada Ietsugu.

He sat in the tree, his little hands holding up his binoculars, his mouth dry as he watched Ietsugu walk away with a satisfied smirk on his lips. Reborn was suddenly overcome with an intense anger as his hands started shaking and gripped tighter around his binoculars. _This boy will destroy Vongola._ The binoculars cracked and shattered. He barely felt the pain as the shards poked into his skin.

_I will not let that happen._

* * *

><p>Tsuna went to school the next day in a daze.<p>

He still couldn't believe that his brother had said those horrible, cruel words. Long ago, he had hoped that all of this—this cruelty, this ridiculing, this bullying—would just be a phase, something that Ietsugu would grow out of. When it showed no signs of going away even after three years, Tsuna soon gave up hope and decided to just keep Ietsugu's attention on him so that no one else would be affected. Hearing him degrade another student, the ace of the baseball team no less, made Tsuna feel useless. He failed at almost anything school related, but he thought that he could at least do something as simple as keeping Ietsugu's attention focused on him. _Why am I so useless? I can't do anything right! I can't memorize things for school, I can't do anything sports-related, I can't do anything! Why?!_

Hibari left him alone, as if sensing his inner turmoil. Tsuna slowly climbed up to the roof, silently brooding over his thoughts. He sat in a secluded corner, making himself as small as possible. He felt better when he was curled up. It was comforting, in a way. It almost felt like nothing could hurt him. He sighed and stayed there for a while, depressed. _I really can't do anything right..._His head snapped up when he heard the creaking of the fence. He watched as Yamamoto Takeshi climbed over the fence and stood on the ledge.

"Yama...moto-kun?"

Yamamoto's head snapped in the direction of Tsuna's voice, his eyes wide open with surprise. His eyes lit up with recognition.

"Tsuna?"

Tsuna stood up slowly and shakily took a step forward, his hand reaching towards Yamamoto.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

He watched as Yamamoto's eyes darkened.

"I...I can't do anything. I can't do well in school, and I haven't been doing very well in baseball. The gods have thrown me away, and now I have nothing to live for. I can't...do anything."

Tsuna's eyes widened as he heard these words. _That's...that's..._

"Don't try to stop me. You're Dame-Tsuna, right? I'm sure you know how I feel."

Tsuna shook his head slowly as his mouth went dry. Yamamoto's eyes darkened even further.

"What? I don't think you're any better than me. After all, you're Dame-Tsuna, the most useless person in Namimori. You can't do anything right."

Tsuna barely heard the biting words as he stepped forward again. He watched as Yamamoto leaned forward slightly, looking down at the ground.

"You can't stop me."

Tsuna suddenly broke into a run, stopping behind Yamamoto. He remembered overhearing Yamamoto's conversation with Ietsugu in front of the school. He remembered his feelings of powerlessness, of failure. _I don't...I don't want to feel that helpless ever again!_

"PLEASE STOP!"

Yamamoto stopped moving forward as he turned to look at Tsuna.

"You're right. I am Dame-Tsuna. I can't do anything right. I can't even stand up to Ietsugu. I couldn't stop him from saying those horrible things to you."

Yamamoto's eyes widened when he realized that Tsuna had overheard his conversation with Ietsugu.

"But you're different. You are the ace of the baseball team, their star, their guidepost. You hold up the team, you support them and make sure they don't fall. You are the beams that hold up the bridge."

Yamamoto's eyes darkened.

"I can't even do that anymore. My skills are dropping—"

Tsuna interrupted him, continuing on.

"Everyone needs to take a break once in a while. If the beams aren't maintained, then they wear away and eventually collapse under the pressure. Then the whole bridge will collapse."

Tsuna could see Yamamoto wavering, and continued.

"And please don't say you have nothing to live for. What about your father? He lost his wife, and now he only has you. If you can't live for baseball or for yourself, then at least live for your father!"

Tsuna saw as Yamamoto's eyes suddenly gained a new resolve. He relaxed slightly when he saw Yamamoto climb over the fence. Both of their eyes widened when they heard a snap. Tsuna reached out for Yamamoto as he fell backwards. Everything seemed like it was moving in slow motion.

"YAMAMOTO-KUN!"

* * *

><p>When the fence snapped, Yamamoto knew it was over. He was going to die. There was really no way he could be saved. Barely anyone was at school because it was so early in the morning, and he couldn't move. His body was frozen; he couldn't do anything as he watched Tsuna's eyes widen as he reached towards him. <em>Why? Just when I decided I wanted to live...why?<em> He could feel a tear slide down his cheeks as he closed his eyes.

They snapped open again when he felt something grab his left hand. _What?_ His eyes traveled up his arm to the hand attached to it. _Tsuna?_ They were both hanging off the side of the roof, dangling over the ground. He closed his eyes, a sense of relief flooding his brain. _Maybe I won't die yet._ He looked up at Tsuna who was looking up at the ledge with a scrunched up look on his face. He felt himself jerk a little, and his eyes widened as his heart stopped for a millisecond. _I thought we were going to fall..._

He looked up at their lifeline, the hand holding onto the ledge. It was shaking, white from the burden it was holding. He watched as it seemed to slowly slip from the edge, a millimeter at a time. _No._ He looked at Tsuna's shaking hands, his clenched teeth, the determination in his eyes. _No._ He watched as Tsuna clenched the ledge harder, trying to slow down the process. _I can't let him die._

"Let go of me!"

Tsuna turned his face down to Yamamoto who was looking at him desperately. He smiled with a strained look on his face from using muscles that he had barely used before.

"No."

_No? Why? Why?! Why won't he let go?!_

"LET GO!"

"NO!"

Yamamoto was quiet for a moment, slightly surprised that Tsuna could yell so loud.

"WHY? WHY WON'T YOU LET ME GO? WHY—"

"I CAN'T LET YOU DIE!"

Yamamoto looked at Tsuna, a stunned look on his face.

"What?"

"I can't let you die! You can't die! Your father would be devastated, and so would half the population of Namimori!"

Yamamoto looked down, processing the information. He looked up again when he felt them slip further off of the roof.

"JUST LET ME GO! YOU CAN'T HOLD ON ANYMORE! AT LEAST SAVE YOURSELF!"

"I can't do that."

Tsuna's calm voice seemed so out-of-place considering the situation they were in.

"If you fall, then I'm falling with you."

Yamamoto's eyes widened. _What? _He looked at the honesty in Tsuna's face. _Why?_ He looked down at the ground that suddenly looked farther away than it had before. _Why would someone do this for me? _He looked up again with new determination. _I can't fall. If I fall, then he will too. _

_I can't let him die._

* * *

><p>Tsuna desperately held on to the roof's ledge, determined to not let them fall. He looked at the teen he was holding, slightly worried at his silence. He felt on of his fingers slip off and immediately looked up at the ledge again, clenching harder with his remaining fingers.<p>

"Tsuna."

He looked down at Yamamoto's hazel eyes questioningly.

"Swing me over to the window."

Tsuna almost protested, but when he saw the look in Yamamoto's eyes, he closed his mouth and closed his eyes with concentration. Slowly, he tried to swing Yamamoto over to the third floor window. He almost had a heart attack when his hand slipped even further, but he managed to get Yamamoto over to the window. He watched as Yamamoto grabbed onto the window with his free hand and let go of Tsuna, who almost had another heart attack. _This really isn't good for my health._

He looked at Yamamoto, wondering what his plan was. He winced when he heard the window shatter. _Kyoya is going to kill him... _He watched Yamamoto vault himself into the room and sighed in relief. _Good. He's safe._ He relaxed slightly. A fatal mistake. His eyes went wide as he felt his remaining fingers slip off the roof and he began falling. _Am I...going to die?_

His heart leaped to his throat as he felt the wind rushing past him. _This is _not_ how I imagined it would feel like if I could fly._ He looked over to the next classroom, into the shocked gray eyes of Hibari Kyoya. _I...I'm sorry, Kyoya__. _He squeezed his eyes shut as he braced himself for his imminent death. He opened his eyes again when he didn't feel anything. He looked up and saw Yamamoto holding onto his arm tightly as he pulled Tsuna up, his face scrunched with the exertion. He swung Tsuna into the room, and they sat near the window as they clenched each other's jacket. _That...that was so scary!_ _Holy crap!_ He felt Yamamoto pull away from him and stare at him. He tilted his head to the side. _What?_ He really didn't trust his voice to speak.

"What you said on the roof...you were wrong."

Tsuna looked at Yamamoto, confused. _What?_

"You aren't useless."

Tsuna got slightly distracted when the door to the classroom slid open and Hibari walked in.

"You aren't the no-good, pathetic person that people think you are."

_No. _Hibari stood in the doorway and listened.

"You're not completely useless."

_You're wrong._

"After all, you saved me, didn't you?"

Yamamoto smile, his teeth glinting in the light. Tsuna looked at him, feeling like he wanted to cry. _I _am_ useless. No one cares about me. Not even my own mother. _But he smiled back anyway.

"Thank you."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And that's the end of the chapter! If you don't want to read the Christmas special, then you can just skip this.**

**Christmas Special:**

Tsuna clenched the wrapped packages under his jacket as he shivered.

His eyes brightened when he saw the sign for Takesushi in front of him. His steps quickened until he was almost running. He opened the door and slipped in, glad to be away from the cold.

"Hey, Tsuna!"

Tsuna looked up and saw Yamamoto and his father standing at the sushi counter, smiling. He smiled back, his nose and cheeks red from the cold. Yamamoto took off his apron and stepped away from the counter.

"I'll leave the rest to you, dad!"

His father just smiled and waved him away.

"Go have fun with your friend!"

Yamamoto motioned for Tsuna to follow him as he walked up the stairs to his room. Tsuna followed him slowly. Hibari was already in Yamamoto's room sitting under the kotatsu, refusing to wait for Tsuna downstairs with all the crowding herbivores. Tsuna beamed at Hibari, who smiled slightly at him.

"Just sit down, and I'll bring up the food."

Tsuna nodded and sat down while Yamamoto left to bring up the sushi. He took off his jacket and set the packages on top of it carefully. He slid under the kotatsu next to Hibari with a sigh as the heater warmed him up. Yamamoto came back to the room with a huge platter of sushi in his hands.

"Let's eat!"

Tsuna dug in eagerly, wanting to taste the best sushi in Namimori. Hibari ate with less enthusiasm as he watched Tsuna and Yamamoto devour their food quickly.

"It's so good!"

Yamamoto grinned at Tsuna.

"I know, right?! Dad's sushi is the best!"

Hibari 'hn'ed in agreement. He listened while Tsuna and Yamamoto talked to each other eagerly. Actually, Yamamoto was doing most of the talking, while Tsuna just nodded every now and then, a small smile on his face. After finishing their food, they opened up the presents.

"Wow, Tsuna! Thanks for the baseball glove! Mine was starting to get really worn out!"

Tsuna smiled and opened up the present he had gotten from Yamamoto. It was a copy of _Attack on Titan_, the new manga that was really popular among the teens nowadays. His smile widened as he looked at Yamamoto gratefully. Hibari got a new pair of tonfas and a coupon for free hamburger steak at a really expensive restaurant. He nodded at Yamamoto in thanks and patted Tsuna's head. They both beamed at him, happy he had liked their gifts. He had, in turn, gifted Yamamoto with a book that listed different techniques that could help him play baseball better. He thanked him profusely and began reading it eagerly. Tsuna got a taser from Hibari and looked at him questioningly. He stared back at him. _Just in case_. Tsuna shrugged and carefully placed it in his jacket pocket.

They all sat next to each other under the kotatsu, Yamamoto reading his book while lying on his stomach. Hibari just fell asleep, his hands under his head. Tsuna lay down between them. _This is nice._ He remembered what it had been like to spend five years of Christmas alone. Then, he had befriended Hibari. They had celebrated their Christmas for three years at Hibari's house. It had always been a quiet celebration. None of them really talked much, so they both always just ate and exchanged presents before falling asleep next to each other under the kotatsu. Now there was one more addition to their group. He glanced at the two bodies next to him and closed his had been much louder with the new addition, but it wasn't unwanted. Christmas had been much louder than usual, but it had been very enjoyable. Tsuna smiled softly. He reveled in the warmth of his friends as he slowly fell asleep.

_If this is what having friends is like, then I wouldn't trade it for the world._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Merry Christmas! ^_^ I hope you get a lot of presents and eat a lot of sweets! And thank you so much for all of the reviews, favorites, and/or follows! They made me really happy! Also, if you don't know already, a kotatsu is a low, wooden table covered with a heavy blanket called a futon. It has a heater that's built in under it.**


	7. The Storm Rages…

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>It was a nice, sunny morning.<p>

Tsuna sat in his seat, staring at the wide, blue skies dreamily. _I had a lot of fun yesterday with Yamamoto-kun and Kyoya..._ He remembered how Yamamoto had dragged him to the game center at nine in the morning where they played games until noon. On their way to a fast food restaurant for lunch, they had stumbled upon Hibari while he was on his daily patrol. Yamamoto had immediately invited him to eat with them, and he couldn't refuse after looking at Tsuna's hopeful face. After hearing that they were planning on going to a fast food restaurant, he changed their plans and forced Tsuna to cook for them at his house. After that, they stayed at Hibari's house until five. It might not have been a very eventful day, but it was the most fun Tsuna had had in a while. _It's nice...to be with people that actually care about me._ He smiled, completely oblivious to the hateful gaze that Ietsugu was sending his way.

Tsuna was startled out of his thoughts when the door opened and the teacher walked in, slamming his books on the desk.

"Students, settle down! We have a new transfer student who was studying overseas in Italy. His name is Gokudera Hayato."

Tsuna immediately shrunk down into his seat, shivering at the cold glare of the transfer student. He wasn't even looking at him, but the intensity of the glare was frightening. Tsuna slowly followed his line of sight. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw exactly who the transfer student was staring at. _Why is he glaring at Ietsugu?_ Ietsugu was returning his glare, not backing down from the challenge. Tsuna almost jumped from his seat with surprise when the whole classroom erupted into chatter.

"OH MY GOD, HE'S SO HOT!"

Tsuna stared at the girls like they were aliens. _How could they think he's hot? He's so scary!_

"He's totally a gangster!"

Tsuna nodded in agreement with the brave soul that had said that.

"But that's what's good..."

Tsuna paled and shook his head. _What is wrong with the female population in this classroom?!_

"I can smell another fanclub!"

"OHMYGOSH YES!"

Tsuna almost face-palmed with exasperation. _I will never, ever, understand the female mind._

"CLASS, QUIET DOWN!"

The students immediately went quiet.

"Thank you. Gokudera-san, your seat is over there—Gokudera-san!?"

Tsuna watched with bated breath as the transfer student slowly made his way over to Ietsugu's desk and kicked it over. Tsuna froze with trepidation as he waited for what his brother would do. Thankfully, the only thing he did was pick up his desk and smile at the teacher, pretending nothing had happened.

"Shall we begin, sensei?"

The teacher gulped as Gokudera's glare got even more intense. He bent down and whispered something into Ietsugu's ear and then went to his seat. Ietsugu continued smiling, acting as if what the transfer student had whispered had no effect on him. He fooled everyone except for Tsuna. He could see the clenched fists, the hands shaking with barely repressed anger. He saw the ire that overflowed in Ietsugu's eyes after the teacher had turned his back and began the lesson. Tsuna closed his eyes and turned his attention to the board. _I __hope he doesn't take out that anger on me..._

* * *

><p>Ietsugu had always known he was destined for something great.<p>

He was always the star student; he was the top in every subject, and no one could beat him when it came to sports. Everyone always showered him with praises, never paying any attention to his useless younger brother. All his peers always looked up to him; he was the boy that was full of courage and easy to get along with. That all changed after he heard one of his friend's parents say, "I wish my child was like Ie-kun..." It was then that he came to a sudden realization. _Oh,_ _I get it now...I'm awesome, and everyone else isn't!_

Ietsugu came to another realization while watching some of his friends making fun of Tsuna, calling him "useless" and "no-good". He had been about to go home, but he stopped and froze in place as he smiled. He watched as they continued to insult Tsuna, and he eventually turned around to continue home, still smiling. He felt as if he were a king sitting on his throne, staring down at everyone, especially his younger twin. _Tsuna is the most useless of everyone!_

He came to his final realization after seeing some of his "friends" beating up his little brother. He had never really thought about physically beating up his little brother, but he greatly enjoyed belittling him. It was always fun, watching as his always happy face twisted into something like sadness or frustration. Seeing his brother writhing on the ground with pain just gave him a thrill that he had never felt before. He watched as Tsuna's face twisted into an expression filled with pain. He found that he quite liked the expression and smiled evilly. He heard as his "friends" discussed Tsuna's uselessness.

"I can't believe he's Ietsugu's brother!"

"He's so useless! The complete opposite!"

"He's only bringing down Ie-kun!"

_Bringing me down?_ Ietsugu's smile disappeared. _Bringing me down?! _His smile returned full force, filled with even more cruelty as he imagined all the praises he had been given, all his loyal followers, as they disappeared as they were stripped away from him. _That can't happen. _His smile grew even more cruel as he imagined falling from his throne, his crown disappearing, as if he were a king ousted from his throne. _I won't let it._

This had all happened three years ago.

When Reborn had told him that he was a hit man sent to Japan to train Ietsugu to become a mafia boss of the most powerful mafia family, he knew. He knew that this was what he had been destined for. He knew that it was what he had been looking forward to all those years. He knew that he would never let his useless younger brother take this chance away from him.

Ietsugu had made sure he had done all he could to show how much he hated his younger twin over the past three years. How much he loathed him. How much he wished he wasn't related to that trash. He thought that he had crushed Tsuna. He thought that everyone hated Tsuna and thought he was completely and utterly useless. He thought that no one would care about Tsuna; they would only focus on him, the golden boy. Tsuna was already friends with the most feared man in Namimori, so there was nothing he could do about that. He just had to make sure that no one else would care about Tsuna's well-being.

But then Reborn had beaten up Ietsugu to find out where Tsuna was after he had beaten him up thoroughly. He saw the slight glimmer of concern in Reborn's body posture as he knocked Ietsugu unconscious, and Ietsugu succumbed to the darkness unwillingly with just one thought in his mind: _Why does he care so much about that useless insect? _After not seeing anymore signs of Reborn actually caring about Tsuna's well-being, he had decided to just let it go.

And then Tsuna had come into class with Yamamoto Takeshi, the baseball star. They had been acting as if they had grown up together; as if they hadn't just been normal classmates just a few days ago. Ietsugu had to resist the urge to utterly destroy something. He wanted to wipe those smiles off their faces. He wanted to make it so that no one cared about Tsuna. So that he was all alone; so he lived his life all alone and died all by himself with no one to support him, thinking that the whole world was against him. He could feel it as his plans slowly went down the drain. _Oh well...I'll just have to make new ones!_

He had been glaring hatefully at Tsuna's head ever since he had gotten to school, but Tsuna didn't seem to have noticed. _I will not let him bring me down._ He remembered the concern that Reborn had shown for Tsuna no matter how much he tried to hide it. _He will not take away my destiny. _His hateful thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the teacher. When he saw the transfer student glaring at him, he glared right back. _No one will bring me down. I will become a mafia boss._ He resisted the urge to reach out and choke the transfer student after he had kicked down his desk. _I need to learn restraint first. That way, I won't accidentally kill my subordinates..._ The transfer student had then leaned down and hissed something into his ear.

_"I won't accept you as the Vongola Decimo. I'm more fit for the position."_

Ietsugu had to clench his fists to refrain from punching the transfer student's face in.

_"I challenge you to a duel! Meet me after school behind the building."_

Ietsugu clenched his fists harder. No one can challenge him. He was the golden boy, Namimori's pride. _I won't let anyone bring me down from my throne. _His face split into a malicious smile.

_I'll just have to crush that bug for daring to challenge my authority._

* * *

><p>After school, Tsuna had been walking home when he heard a loud explosion.<p>

Yamamoto couldn't make it because he had baseball practice, so Tsuna had convince him that he was okay going home alone before Yamamoto finally went to the baseball meet. Tsuna was happily walking out of the school building, glad that he had actually made a new friend after four years of only him and Hibari. Hibari wasn't bad company, but it did get kind of lonely because he was constantly out patrolling. He also never really talked much. Tsuna was pulled out of his thoughts as his head snapped around quickly when he heard an explosion coming from the back of the building. _What's going on? _He debated over whether or not he should go there when he heard another explosion. _What if someone got hurt?_ He immediately ran to the back of the building after realizing that the explosions could be something potentially dangerous.

He was greeted to the sight of Ietsugu fighting with..._the transfer student?_ _What's going on here?!_ He watched as the transfer student pulled out sticks of dynamite from out of nowhere. _Where the heck did they come from?_ Ietsugu seemed to be..._naked?_ and there was fire burning on his forehead. _What the heck?_ Tsuna felt like his head would explode if he was exposed to anymore weirdness.

"YOU ARE NOT FIT TO BECOME THE TENTH BOSS!"

"DEFEAT THE DAMN BUG WITH MY DYING WILL!"

Tsuna had no idea what they were yelling out. _Tenth boss? Dying will? You know what, I'm just going to pretend I never heard any of that._ Tsuna watched the fight with rising horror. It looked like no one was really getting hurt, but it looked really dangerous. He wanted to stop the fight, but it looked so..._intense_. There was no way he would survive if he jumped in. He was so busy trying to figure out how to stop the fight without potentially getting killed, that he barely felt the light tap on his shoulder as Reborn jumped up to him.

"What are you doing here?"

Tsuna had to force his eyes to look away from the bright display of flames as he turned his head.

"I...I h-heard some explosions, and I th-thought that s-someone might get hurt, so I decided to ch-check it out."

Reborn nodded, accepting the explanation.

"Just don't jump in."

Tsuna nervously bit his fingernails. _But...but someone might get seriously hurt!_

"Don't worry, I won't let any of them die."

Tsuna relaxed slightly before tensing up again. _I'm pretty sure I didn't say that out loud..._

"You didn't. I can read your mind."

Tsuna freaked out. _WHAT?! But that's not possible!_

"It is possible. After all, I am the world's greatest hit man."

Tsuna looked at Reborn questioningly. _Hit man?_ Reborn had to resist the urge to kick himself. _What the hell am I thinking? He doesn't know about the mafia! I let my guard down..._ He shook his head. _This can't happen again. I'm the world's greatest hit man, goddammit._

"Nothing."

Tsuna stared at him before deciding to just let the subject drop as he turned to look back at the fight.

"DOUBLE BOMB!"

Ietsugu dodged all the bombs before attempting to move in closer to Gokudera to land a blow in retaliation. Gokudera dodged his punch and took out more dynamite. His face scrunched with concentration, getting ready to deliver his killing move.

"TRIPLE BOMB!"

Ietsugu ignored his shout and attempted to kick Gokudera in the face. Gokudera tsked and had to move away to avoid getting hit. He readied his bombs and didn't notice that Ietsugu had gotten closer until it was too late. He doubled over in pain as Ietsugu delivered a roundhouse kick to his stomach. His hands released the dynamite as he clutched his stomach, bracing himself for another blow. He opened his eyes when he didn't feel any. _Why isn't he attacking me?_ He got his answer when he saw Ietsugu standing far away from him. _Why is he so far away?_ His eyes widened when he heard sizzling coming from near his feet. He looked down with horror and stared at the dynamite surrounding him.

_Am I...going to die?_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I think I'm going to be updating more frequently during winter break, so be prepared! ^_^ Thank you guys so much for the favorites and follows! I almost have 200 of each! Please review!**


	8. …And Calms…

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Tsuna gazed at the scene in front of him with horror.<p>

_Why isn't anyone doing anything?_ He stared at Gokudera, who was just standing in place, his face pale. He turned his gaze to Ietsugu, who was merely looking upon the scene in front of him as if he had won a game. _Why?_ He glanced at Reborn who just seemed to be sitting on his shoulder, staring at the scene with dark eyes. _Didn't you say you wouldn't let any of them die?_ He watched as the fuses burned, seconds away from reaching the nitroglycerin-soaked sawdust inside. _I need to help him! _He looked down at his legs when he realized he wasn't moving. He felt like crying. _Why can't I do anything?_ He tried to move his legs, but they just stayed in place as if they were glued to the ground. _Why am I so useless?_ He glanced at the sticks of dynamite scattering the ground and saw that the fuses were almost completely burned. His gaze traveled upwards to Gokudera's pale face as he squeezed his eyes shut. _I...I don't want to let anyone die right in front of me!_

The next thing he knew, he was rushing towards Gokudera at a speed he had never known he could reach.

_What? _He glanced down at his legs to see orange flames wreathing around them. He almost had a panic attack. _What is this?!_ He closed his eyes and opened them again. The flames seemed to have disappeared. _Was it just my imagination?_ He realized he had stopped moving and looked up to see Gokudera right in front of him. He glanced at the sticks of dynamite that seemed to be burning much slower than before. _Adrenaline?_ He shook his head. _No! I can't think about that now! I need to help Gokudera-san!_ He grabbed Gokudera's hand and tried to pull him away. He tugged harder when he saw that Gokudera wasn't moving.

"GOKUDERA-SAN! Please move!"

At Tsuna's screaming, Gokudera looked up. He looked up at Tsuna as if he were an alien.

"RUN!"

Gokudera registered the pulling on his hand and glanced down at his hand. He looked at Tsuna's hand on his arm as if it were some unknown object from another dimension.

"THE DYNAMITE'S ABOUT TO EXPLODE!"

At these words, Gokudera seemed to snap out of his daze. He began to run, Tsuna pulling his hand as they tried to get as far away from the dynamite as they could, but it was too late. Tsuna stared with wide eyes as the dynamite began to blow up. He paled when he saw the explosives around them explode one by one. Everything looked like it was happening in slow motion. _What do I do now? _He saw the fuse of the nearest dynamite stick as it shrunk faster than Tsuna could think.

Suddenly, Tsuna didn't need to think anymore. The last thing he felt was a painful sensation of burning against his back as he stared at the emerald green eyes under him.

_At least Gokudera-san is okay._

* * *

><p>Gokudera's life was messed up.<p>

He was the illegitimate son of an affair between a half-Japanese, half-Italian woman and a mafia boss. However, illegitimate children were not tolerated in the mafia. By mafia law, he also had to be taken away from his mother immediately after birth. His father told everyone that Gokudera was the son of him and his wife, and even Gokudera believed it for eight years. Those eight years of his life were torture. His "mother" beat him, ridiculed him, and seemed to hate him no matter what he did to make her proud.

_Why?_ he wanted to ask, when he saw his older sister, Bianchi, being praised for getting a 100 on a test while he clutched multiple tests in his hand, each one with a bright red 100 on the top.

_Why?_ He wanted to ask, when he saw his mother pat Bianchi on the head for doing something that had been _his_ doing.

_Why?_ he wanted to ask, when he saw his mother smile at Bianchi, when all he ever saw were frowns.

_Now I know why,_ he thought as he hid behind the wall listening to the maids gossip about how the nice lady who taught him piano was his real mother, and the person he had always _believed_ was his mother actually wasn't.

Until the age of three, a pretty lady would come over to visit him. She was kind; she always smiled and praised him when his "mother" wouldn't. She had silver hair, green eyes, and looked almost exactly like him. He never questioned why, only knowing her as the nice lady who taught him how to play the piano. Once, he had asked his father why the pretty lady only visited three times a year, but he only shook his head sadly. Gokudera never asked again.

Until one day, the pretty lady stopped visiting. _Why?_ He asked his father. _Why did she stop coming?_ His father only looked down at him with a face that looked like he was going to start crying as he embraced Gokudera. Gokudera stiffened in the embrace, and when his father let him go, he never asked again. When he was five, he came to the conclusion that the pretty lady stopped visiting because she didn't like him. It made sense. After all, his own mother didn't even like him.

It was only when he was eight that he learned the truth.

"It's already been five years since then..." one of the maids said sadly to the other maids. Eight year old Gokudera was running down the hallway and stopped when he heard the maids talking.

"Since when?"

"Since Master Hayato's mother passed away five days after his birthday."

One of the maids turned around, shocked.

"You mean Master Hayato isn't Madame's child!?"

_What?_ Gokudera froze in shock as his eyes widened with the new revelation.

"What are you talking about?" the maid whispered to the other. "Master Hayato was a child that was born because of an affair between _him_ and a young pianist!"

Gokudera turned his back to the wall and looked down. _My mother was a young pianist?_ His head jerked up when he remembered the nice woman who used to visit him a lot and teach him how to play piano. He remembered the feeling of betrayal when she stopped coming to visit him altogether. He turned and ran down the hallway, bumping into another maid along the way. He kept running, not even stopping to apologize. _That lady was my mother?_

The next day, he ran away.

Ever since he was young, all the families had rejected him. He was just a mere musician; no one wanted to accept him into their family. When his real mother had died, people rejected him more vehemently. Now he knew that it was because they had found out about his heritage. _Maybe if I get stronger, they'll accept me into their families!_ He was too naive. Even after training himself more, even after finally making a name for himself, no one accepted him. No one wanted him. _No one would care if I died_. He became a freelance hit man. _Fine. _He killed people for a living now. _I don't need people to take care of me._ He never heard from his family again. _I can take care of myself._ He spent every birthday by himself, every Christmas killing mafiosi. He no longer knew what happiness felt like anymore. _It's okay. No one needs such a useless emotion anyway._

Then he had received a call from the world's greatest hit man asking him to test the soon-to-be Vongola Decimo. He didn't see the point in refusing. _It's not like I have a job right now, and I don't have anything to lose. _He caught the first plane to Japan. _This'll be over in no time. I'll just defeat the candidate, come back, and get back to killing people. Fun._

He had threatened the candidate in the hopes it would help him complete the job quicker. It had certainly helped in speeding things up, but he hadn't expected the candidate to actually be _strong_.

"You got here earlier than expected, Gokudera Hayato."

He shrugged as he stared at the fuming candidate in front of him. _I had nothing better to do anyway._

"Is it true that if I win against him, I become the candidate for Vongola Decimo?" he asked, making sure to insert fake enthusiasm into his voice as he pointed his thumb at the blond teen.

"Yes."

The blond only seemed to grow angrier at Reborn's affirmation.

"Didn't you say that only someone with Vongola blood could become a candidate?!"

Reborn only kicked him.

"Shut up, Baka-Ie."

Gokudera decided to take this as his cue to begin attacking. He immediately pulled out several sticks of dynamite and lighted the fuses using his cigarette.

"YOU ARE NOT FIT TO BECOME THE TENTH BOSS!" he yelled, in the hopes of riling up his opponent.

Long ago, he used to revel in the feeling of power when he looked down at his opponent's face as they realized they were about to die. He no longer felt anything, looking at the face of the soon-to-be-dead ex-candidate. He watched as the bombs exploded and the dust flew up everywhere. _I hope I can go home now..._

"DEFEAT THE DAMN BUG WITH MY DYING WILL!"

Gokudera turned around in surprise when the supposedly dead teen attacked him in his boxers. _Why is he in his boxers?_ He had to shake his head for a moment. _Wait, that's not the problem here._ _There's no way a civilian would have been able to survive that explosion._ He narrowly dodged an attack. _I guess I'll just blow him up now and think about it later._

He had been doing pretty well. He wasn't sustaining any wounds, but then again, the candidate wasn't sustaining any wounds either. _I guess I should try to finish this quickly..._

"DOUBLE BOMB!"

The candidate-that-was-supposed-to-be-a-civilian dodged the bombs successfully. _One more time..._

"TRIPLE BOMB!"

His eyes widened when he felt a kick to his stomach. He doubled over in pain. _Crap! I let my guard down..._ His eyes widened as he stared at the sticks of dynamite that surrounded his feet. _Am I...going to die here?_ He felt a numbing horror as he watched the fuses continue to burn. _This must be how my victims felt when I blew them up..._ He almost laughed at the irony. He could almost see the headlines. "Smokin' Bomb Hayato Blows Up From His Own Dynamite and Dies!"

He barely registered the hand that grabbed his arm. He lifted his head when he heard someone yell at him. He saw a small teen in front of him. _What is he doing...?_

"RUN!"

_Why is he telling me to run...?_ He looked down when he felt an insistent tugging on his arm. _Why is he trying to pull me away?_

"THE DYNAMITE'S ABOUT TO EXPLODE!"

_...Crap! This person is a civilian! I can't let him die!_ He immediately began to run away, hoping to get the civilian away from the bombs. _I don't want to let any civilians die because of me._ He remembered his _real_ mother's smiling face as he ran. _It's all his fault. _He closed his eyes as he remembered their piano lessons together. _If he hadn't had me, she wouldn't have died. _He remembered how much he had practiced, wanting to see her smile as much as possible. _No...__i__t's my fault she died. _He remembered realizing that he would never be able to see those smiles again. S_he wouldn't have died if she hadn't been coming to see me._ He opened his eyes. _I won't let an innocent person die again._

When he turned to look back, he saw that it was already too late for him. He was behind the civilian, so he would get most of the attack. He closed his eyes as he braced himself for the explosion. His eyes snapped open again when he felt the teen in front of him pull his hand. Gokudera stumbled forward. _What__—_ His eyes widened in realization as he watched the civilian shield him. _What is he doing? I need to__—_But it was already too late. The teen's eyes were filled with relief as he stared at Gokudera even as his eyes slid closed.

Gokudera felt the rough sand hit his back. It hurt. But he barely felt it. His hands were shaking as he stared at the teen lying on top of him. _Why? Why would he try to save someone like me?!_

There was blood all over his shirt. But he barely noticed. _I just killed a civilian._ He made a living killing people, but they were all mafiosi. They all had blood on their hands. They knew that the world they were living in followed one rule, and it was survival of the fittest. The weaklings die, and only the strong live. In order to live, in order to become strong, they needed to kill. They needed to gain influence. It didn't matter how. Human trafficking, scamming, blackmail... It didn't matter how they got to the top, as long as they ended up there somehow.

The civilians always seemed like the light he could never reach. They were pure, innocent... They knew nothing of the darkness that occurred in the underworld. Gokudera was always in the darkness; the shadows were always around him, and they always got darker and thicker the more he stained his hands with blood. He didn't want to let the light, the innocents, die because of him. He killed mafiosi; he only killed the evil beings. His victims had been doing something harmful to the innocents. They didn't deserve to live.

Yet, as he stared at the small body that was quickly losing blood because of the multiple burns across its back, he came to a realization. _I don't deserve to live, either..._

He was snapped out of his thoughts when the world's greatest hit man spoke.

"He's still breathing. Get him to a hospital!"

Gokudera obeyed his orders without question. He rushed to the nearest hospital with the bloody body in his arms, ignoring the stares of all the people around him. _He can still be saved... He's still alive!_

"I will bite you to death for—"

Gokudera barely noticed as he rushed by a teen with a red armband on his left arm. He barely noticed as the tonfas that the teen had been holding suddenly dropped as his face turned white and he stared at the body in Gokudera's arms as Gokudera got further and further away. He barely noticed as the teen seemed to recompose himself quickly and follow him. The only thing he cared about was getting the small teen to the hospital.

He arrived at the hospital in record time and handed over the teen. The nurses took one look at the teen and immediately brought out a gurney. They lay the teen on it carefully and rushed him to the Intensive Care Unit. He could hear the doctors yelling at each other.

"HE'S LOSING BLOOD QUICKLY! WE NEED TO CLOSE THE WOUNDS!"

"HE'S GOING TO NEED A BLOOD TRANSFUSION! GET BLOOD TYPE A READY!"

He listened in with growing horror. _I did that? _He only relaxed slightly when the doctors yelled that he had stopped losing blood. _Thank god..._

"HE'S BURNING UP!"

"HURRY! COOL HIM DOWN!"

He stayed outside of the ICU, tensely waiting for news about his condition. Finally, after what seemed like years of waiting, the doors slid open and they wheeled out the teen. Gokudera opened his mouth to ask how the teen was when someone beat him to it.

"How is he?"

He noticed how the doctor seemed to shiver a bit before revealing the teen's condition.

"S-Sawada Tsunayoshi was in critical condition when he was brought in. He has first-degree burns all over his back and some second-degree, but nothing too serious. He was losing blood very quickly and had lost almost one liter of blood before we were able to get him a blood transfusion. Now he has a 40 degrees Celsius fever which should go down in a few days."

Gokudera turned around to see who else was with him after the doctor had finished talking. He saw the teen from before with the tonfas and the red armband. _Who is he? Does he know this...Sawada Tsunayoshi guy? Wait...Sawada? Isn't that the surname of the candidate?_

All thoughts of this were banished from his head when he saw the teen force his way into the room of Sawada Tsunayoshi. _If he can go in, then I can, too._ They ignored the nurses yelling at them and only focused on getting into the room. When they reached the open door, the teen with the tonfas stopped. Gokudera glanced at him questioningly before he pushed his way into the room. The teen seemed to have frozen in place; he was just standing in the doorway and staring at the figure on the bed. He stayed there for a good five minutes before he finally took a seat near the hospital bed.

They both stayed there silently until visiting hours were over.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Tsuna seems to be going to the hospital a lot… Anyway, it seems like the Gokudera arc will last longer than the Yamamoto arc did. I made Gokudera very OOC, didn't I… o.O Oh, well!**

**Anyway, thank you all for the favorites, follows, and reviews! I really love reading the reviews. They make me so happy :)**


	9. …And The Sky Brightens

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Hibari almost had a heart attack when he saw the transfer student carrying the (very) bloody body of his best friend to the hospital.<p>

He had been about to bite the herbivore to death for causing a commotion (people kept talking about the teen carrying a body, and frankly, it had been getting annoying), but he ended up dropping his tonfas from the shock instead. _What?_ Images from his parents' death flooded his mind again. He mentally shook his head. _That herbivore is taking Tsunayoshi to the hospital. He's still alive._ That didn't stop him from worrying about his friend. He had been covered in blood, and it looked like he was still losing blood. _Seriously though, what is wrong with Tsunayoshi? Can't I take my eyes off of him for one second without him getting hurt?!_ He quickly picked up his tonfas again and ran after the duo. _Tsunayoshi really needs to learn how to protect himself..._

When they arrived at the hospital, Tsuna had been taken to the ICU quickly. Hibari waited for the news of Tsuna's condition silently as he leaned on the wall. While he waited, he observed the herbivore sitting in one of the chairs in front of the ICU. He hadn't seemed to have noticed Hibari yet. _Why was this herbivore carrying Tsunayoshi? Why was he so bloody? _He mulled over his thoughts as he anxiously waited to hear about Tsuna's condition, not showing any of his anxiety outwardly. He almost breathed a sigh of relief when the doctors finally came out of the ICU (listening to their yelling inside of the ICU almost felt like riding a roller coaster).

"How is he?"

He watched with slight satisfaction as the doctor shivered and gave him an answer almost immediately, pushing up his glasses shakily.

"S-Sawada Tsunayoshi was in critical condition when he was brought in. He has first-degree burns all over his back and some second-degree, but nothing too serious. He was losing blood very quickly and had almost lost one liter of blood before we were able to get him a blood transfusion. Now he has a 40 degrees Celsius fever which should go down in a few days."

After he had learned of his best friend's condition, he swiftly turned and knocked away anyone who tried to block him from going into the room. He had waited patiently the first time Tsuna was admitted into the hospital, but enough was enough. _I don't fucking care anymore, I am The Hibari-freaking-Kyoya. _He took notice of the herbivore who had taken Tsuna to the hospital as he followed him inside. They stayed there in silence until visiting hours were over.

The next day, both had gone to the hospital again. This time, they were allowed into the room without any resistance from the nurses. He was watching the rising and falling of Tsuna's chest, content to just sit in silence again, when the herbivore spoke up.

"I'm sorry."

Hibari turned around and stared at the herbivore.

"It's my fault he got hurt."

And then Hibari no longer saw anything around him. He only saw the herbivore. Everything else seemed to have turned red. He whipped out his tonfas and advanced towards Gokudera threateningly.

"I will bite you to death," he hissed as his eyes narrowed.

Then he attacked.

* * *

><p>Tsuna woke up to the sound of something crashing.<p>

He opened his eyes blearily as he tried to take in his surroundings. _Huh? Why am I in a hospital again? I seriously need to stop... _His head jerked to the side when he heard another crash. _...Kyoya? And Gokudera-san?_ His vision cleared, and he saw, to his horror, Hibari attacking Gokudera while Gokudera tried to defend himself. There was already a broken table. _So that's what the crash was... Wait, no, that's not the point. __What the heck's going on here?_ It looked like Hibari was winning so far. There was barely a scratch on him, while Gokudera seemed to be gaining a lot of bruises.

"Kyoya?!"

Hibari's head whipped around quickly as he turned to look at the hospital bed. He was next to Tsuna before he could even blink.

"Why were you attacking Gokudera-san?" Tsuna asked, staring at up at Hibari.

"Hn." Hibari merely crossed his arms and sat down in his chair, his face turned away from Tsuna.

"Kyoya."

Hibari's arms dropped as he internally sighed.

"That herbivore hurt you."

Tsuna's eyes widened as he realized what had been going on. _He thinks that it's Gokudera-san's fault that I got hurt!_ He shook his head frantically.

"He didn't mean to! He was surrounded by dynamite, and we tried to get away, but we couldn't, so I shoved him in front of me! It wasn't his fault!"

That seemed to have persuaded Hibari that it hadn't been Gokudera's fault, but it didn't seem like he would forgive Gokudera for bringing the dynamite to school in the first place. _Come to think of it, why did he think it was Gokudera-san's fault?_ Gokudera, seeing the curious look on Tsuna's face, spoke up for the first time since Tsuna had woken up.

"I told him it was my fault."

Tsuna's head whipped around. _I forgot he was here! Oops..._ His eyebrows furrowed when finally registered what Gokudera had said.

"Why?"

Gokudera looked down.

"Because it _was_ my fault. If it weren't for my own stupidity, then you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

Tsuna closed his eyes for a second before opening them again.

"It wasn't your fault. It was my own choice to save you."

Gokudera squeezed his eyes shut.

"But—"

"Gokudera-san."

Gokudera's eyes opened as he looked up, surprised at the sudden commanding tone Tsuna's voice had adopted.

"It wasn't your fault. _I_ was the one who chose to save you. _I_ was the one who chose to run in, knowing I could have died." His tone softened again as he smiled at Gokudera. "So stop blaming yourself, okay?"

Gokudera stared at Tsuna with wide eyes as he slowly nodded. Tsuna's smile grew larger.

"Good."

* * *

><p>Gokudera really hadn't expected to be attacked by the teen with the red armband.<p>

His eyes widened as the teen came at him with a speed he hadn't seen before. _What the heck?!_ When the teen had started to attack him, he had to recall every bit of training he had done the past to evade him. _I know it's my fault Sawada is hurt. _He winced as the teen landed a particularly hard hit. _I deserve this._ He could barely follow the teen's movements. _This person moves so quickly!_ Even his training didn't help much. _Who is he?_ He barely dodged another swing of the teen's tonfas. _Man, the mafia must really be declining if I'm having a harder time with him than I ever had with my victims!_ Thankfully, he was saved from any further beating when a voice spoke up from behind them.

"Kyoya?!"

Gokudera almost collapsed with relief when the teen immediately stopped attacking him and turned to the teen on the bed. _He saved me again..._ He listened as Sawada and the violent teen talked to each other. He sat down in a chair in the corner, giving them space. He listened when he noticed that the conversation was almost over.

"...so I shoved him in front of me! It wasn't his fault!"

The violent teen seemed to have accepted the excuse grudgingly, but that didn't stop him from sending a hate-filled glare towards Gokudera. Gokudera nervously looked away from the teen and focused on Sawada instead, hoping to get away from the intense glare. He saw the teen looking at the violent one curiously and knew what he was thinking.

"I told him it was my fault."

The surprised look on Sawada's face almost made him laugh. _His face is too expressive... It's too easy to read._ He watched as Sawada's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at Gokudera with even more confusion.

"Why?"

Gokudera had to look down. Sawada's face was too honest, too innocent to look at.

"Because it _was_ my fault. If it weren't for my own stupidity, then you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"It wasn't your fault. It was my own choice to save you."

He closed his eyes. _You're wrong. It was my fault._ He began to voice his objection when Sawada interrupted him.

"But—"

"Gokudera-san."

Gokudera was taken aback by the commanding tone Sawada suddenly adopted. He opened his eyes and looked up.

"It wasn't your fault. _I_ was the one who chose to save you. _I_ was the one who chose to run in, knowing I could have died."

Sawada sounded so firm, so sure of what he was saying...

"So stop blaming yourself, okay?"

_...Almost like a mafia boss._ Gokudera's eyes widened as he found himself slowly nodding to Tsuna's words. He felt lighter than before, like a weight had suddenly lifted itself from his shoulders. _Thank you. _

"Good."

He almost felt like crying. _Why does he care so much? It would have been so easy to just place the blame on me! Isn't that what people usually do?_

"Gokudera-san?"

He looked up at Tsuna questioningly.

"Try not to do that again."

_What?_

"It would be bad if you got hurt."

_Why?_

"I would be really sad if you got hurt."

_Why do you care so much?_

"So please be more careful."

Gokudera barely felt the tears as they ran down his cheeks.

"Okay?"

He could barely see Tsuna's face through his tears. He quickly wiped them away and felt almost blinded by the bright smile that Tsuna was sending his way. He smiled back. It wasn't as bright as Tsuna's smile, but it was still a smile. _If it's him, then..._

"Okay."

_I would gladly follow him._

* * *

><p>Something had been on Hibari's mind ever since he had befriended Tsuna.<p>

Ever since people had realized that Tsuna was the friend of _the_ Hibari Kyoya, all kinds of people tried to kidnap him. The Yakuza, some delinquent gang, etc. They had always failed, thanks to Hibari's trusted network of DC members. Sadly, even the news of the "most useless" student in Namimori befriending the most feared man in Namimori hadn't stopped the damn herbivores from beating up Tsuna. However, it seemed like Tsuna wasn't getting any life-threatening injuries, and the DC members usually stopped the bullies before things got too serious. So he pushed the matter from his head and didn't visit it again until he had seen his best friend lying outside of his house with multiple injuries.

_He needs to learn how to fight._

Hibari knew exactly what kind of person Sawada Tsunayoshi was. It would be sad if he didn't considering they had been friends for five years. Tsunayoshi was kind, selfless, caring, and basically very unfit for fighting. _But he needs to learn if he wants to survive._ Then Tsuna had woken up, and all thoughts of this were banished from his mind as his head only filled with the thought that his best friend was alive, and he was okay.

When he had seen his friend being rushed to the hospital _again__—it had only been five months!—_the thought returned again. Seeing Tsunayoshi covered in blood—_just like his parents__—_was not something he wanted to see again. He watched as his best friend bonded with yet another herbivore—_what was with this new influx of friends?!—_and decided. _Tsunayoshi will learn how to fight. __And I'm going to be the one to teach him how._

After deciding that the bonding session between the silver-haired herbivore and Tsunayoshi had gone on for long enough, he grunted to get Tsunayoshi's attention. When both of them turned to look at him, he said the longest sentence he would probably ever say in his entire life.

"It has come to my attention that you are too weak—"

Tsuna winced at that and opened his mouth in protest. He shut it again when Hibari shot him a warning glare.

"—and you are getting hurt too much these days—"

Hibari almost smiled when he saw the silver-haired teen wince a bit. _Good,_ he thought viciously. _Tsunayoshi's too nice to say it's your fault, but I think otherwise._

"—so I have decided that I should teach you how to fight."

When he finished, the room's occupants stared at him in stunned silence for a few seconds before it erupted into chaos.

"But I don't need to learn how to fight!"

"That's right! I'll protect him from now on!"

"Wha—I don't need protection!"

_Yes, you do,_ Hibari thought. He watched as the silver-haired teen turned to Tsunayoshi and opened his mouth to refute Tsunayoshi's statement, then decided not to and turned back to Hibari.

"He should not be taught by a person as violent as you!"

"Hey! Kyoya isn't violent, he's just...yeah, he's violent."

Hibari resisted the urge to whack him on the head for that. _He's injured, he's injured..._

"Anyway! Kyoya, I don't want to learn how to fight!"

Hibari decided that it was time to put an end to the chaos.

"I don't care."

Tsunayoshi and the herbivore stared at him, their mouths open as what they were about to say next died in their throats.

"You will learn how to fight."

Maybe it was the way he said it or the fact that he had held up his tonfas threateningly, but Tsunayoshi closed his mouth and nodded slowly. _Good._ He nodded approvingly as he walked to the door and stopped, turning back to look at them.

"Training starts when you are released."

And he left.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Wow, two chapters in one day! I have way too much free time on my hands...**

**Thank you so much! 200 follows! You guys are the best! Your reviews made me so happy, too! **


	10. New Revelations

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Tsuna was dreading the day he would be released from the hospital.<p>

While most people would be looking forward to the day they get released, (unless they were super lazy or cheap and didn't want to pass up on the cheap food and television), Tsuna wasn't. He was dreading it with every fiber of his being. _I don't want to learn how to fight! I don't want to learn how to hurt people!_ He was so close to having a mental breakdown when Gokudera entered the room with Yamamoto.

"Tsuna-sama! How are you feeling?"

"Hey, Tsuna! I brought snacks!"

"Hey! Don't speak to Tsuna-sama so informally, baseball-freak!"

"Hahaha! It's okay, because we're friends! Right, Tsuna?"

"It is not okay!"

Tsuna sighed and closed his eyes as he listened to his friends bickering as usual. They had met a day after Hibari had dropped that bomb on Gokudera and Tsuna. Yamamoto had heard about Tsuna from Hibari, so he had been going to visit him. Gokudera had already been in Tsuna's hospital room, having gone there right after school. At first, Tsuna had been happy to introduce them to each other. Needless to say, they had not gotten along, and Tsuna was really regretting it. _Well, they would've met _some_ day anyway..._

After they had stayed there for two hours and Yamamoto had dropped off the schoolwork for the day (Tsuna had almost cried at how much there was), they finally left. Tsuna almost sighed with relief. _Thank god nothing broke this time..._ He loved his friends, he really did. It's just that...they got tiring sometimes. They also damaged too many things.

Being left alone had allowed Tsuna to sit in silence and actually think. Which really wasn't a good thing, because he almost began to hyperventilate when he thought about what Hibari had said about teaching him how to fight. He had never really liked fighting; he never liked seeing blood. However, that one time with Hibari had forever scarred him. About four years ago, they had been watching a documentary on animals. At first, Tsuna had been enjoying it. There had been some cute rabbits, and squirrels, and deer. Then, a lion had suddenly appeared. Tsuna was so horrified at what happened next that he was almost sick. Just remembering the utterly mangled body of the poor deer made him want to throw up. Meanwhile, Hibari had been smiling almost crazily as he watched the lion rip up the deer. _There's got to be something wrong with him! No one with a shred of humanity would smile at that! He totally has the mentality of a serial killer or something!_

Tsuna really didn't want to leave the hospital now. _Oh my god, what if he is a serial killer! I'd be left alone with a serial killer who wants to teach me how to fight! What if he kills me in the process!? _Tsuna had to shake his head multiple times. _No, no, no. Kyoya is not a serial killer. If he were, I'd probably be dead by now. But what if he's only keeping me alive so I can be his successor someday!?_ He almost felt like slapping himself. _No, Tsunayoshi. You are getting way too ahead of yourself. Kyoya is not a serial killer, and he never will be._ He smiled triumphantly for a few seconds before deflating again. _But I still don't want to fight! Agh!_

The nurses walking by had to refrain from staring as the room's occupant began to pull at his hair for seemingly no reason.

* * *

><p>Reborn was regretting the day he accepted this job.<p>

At first, he had liked the idea. _Tutoring again, huh..._ He smiled sadistically. _Looks like I get to have fun again!_ And he went to his private jet, plotting all the different ways he could torture—ahem, _tutor_—his new student. Then he had arrived at the Sawada household, and he had to throw his plans out the metaphorical window. Iemitsu had given him information on his family. Sawada Ietsugu was supposed to be kind, caring, athletic, smart, and selfless. In other words, everything that he wasn't. Besides the athletic and smart part. Reborn had to grudgingly agree with the stupid idiot about the older twin's athletic and academic prowess. Then he had met the younger twin, and he had been almost exactly like how Iemitsu had described the older twin. Minus the athletic and smart part. _But t__hat could always be fixed..._

Anyway, the point was that the twins had ruined all of Reborn's plans so far. Both had done it unintentionally, but he still really hated them. Well, he didn't actually _hate_ them (just the older one). But seriously. All his perfect plans, down the drain. Just wonderful. There had to be a limit to how much people could ruin his plans. First, he had picked Hibari Kyoya as the Cloud Guardian, but then he learned that the most feared man in Namimori was already the younger twin's friend, and he had to abandon that plan. Then he observed the students in the school and decided that Yamamoto Takeshi would be a great Rain Guardian. And then Ietsugu almost drove him to commit suicide and _Tsuna _had beenthe one to stop him. That plan had to go to the metaphorical garbage can. Then he called over Gokudera Hayato, hoping that Baka-Ie would _finally_ be able to get _one_ guardian, but that had also failed.

He sighed as he shot at Ietsugu, who was promptly ignored as he yelled at Reborn and ran faster to get away from the trigger-happy child. _I wish Nono had chosen the younger twin as the next boss... He would have been a much better choice than this conniving bastard._ He reveled in the look of fear on Ietsugu's face as he ran faster and dodged the bullets. _That's what you get for hurting Tsuna__—wait, what the heck am I thinking?!_

Really, it would have made his job so much easier if the younger twin had been chosen. _Actually, it would be a whole lot easier if Sawada Ietsugu never existed in the first place..._ He nodded internally. _It really would._ Maybe that way, Tsuna would stop getting hurt so much. It was really all his fault that Tsuna had gone to the hospital twice in the span of five months. He had paid the hospital bills—which had been _expensive_ for a Japanese hospital, goddammit. How could he not die from all those injuries?!—and he made sure to make Ietsugu's life hell. It almost felt insufficient, compared to what Tsuna had gone through. It was the best he could do, though. He almost winced when he remembered why Tsuna had been sent to the hospital the second time.

_If only I had moved... I could have kicked Smokin' Bomb out of the way, and everything would have been fine._ He remembered the shock that had numbed his system for a few fatal seconds when he realized that Ietsugu was really going to leave Gokudera to die. He didn't think any civilian would have been fine with watching someone die right in front of him. Then Tsuna had jumped in and pushed Gokudera out of the way and sustained serious injuries instead, all while Ietsugu had watched with a triumphant smile. _It's official: Sawada Ietsugu is the spawn of Satan._ Funny, that's what most people said of Reborn.

Now he just had to make sure that Tsuna would stop being sent to the hospital.

While he was torturing his student, he mulled over what had happened when Tsuna had jumped in to save Gokudera. He had run in at a speed that was not humanly possible, and Reborn remembered wondering how that was possible. He, however, had been too occupied by the fact that the civilian brother had just run into his potential death, so he hadn't thought about it much. However, now that Reborn knew he was safe, he had time to think over the events. _How did Tsuna manage to get there so quickly?_ He cast his mind back to the scene.

_Tsuna flicked me off his shoulder and ran at Gokudera with a speed that wasn't humanly possible with flames flickering around his legs__—wait, flames?_ Reborn almost widened his eyes at the revelation. _Sawada Tsunayoshi has flames...What color were they?_ Reborn paused for a moment in his shooting before he resumed again, not letting his student rest. He had never thought about it before, but..._orange. They were orange._ Reborn's eyes widened under the brim of his fedora. _Orange flames._

_Sky flames._

* * *

><p>Tsuna was released from the hospital a few weeks later.<p>

He felt like he was being weighed down by rocks. He dragged his feet home and spent the day in suspense, waiting for when Hibari would come by to train him to fight. He went around the house like a ghost. _Thank god Ietsugu isn't here..._ He walked around aimlessly, not really focusing on anything. _I don't want to..._ He almost jumped out of his skin when the doorbell rang. _I spent two hours doing nothing...I'm so productive..._ He made his way to the door as slowly as possible and opened it with a feeling of foreboding and looked into the silvery-gray eyes of Hibari Kyoya. _I knew it..._

Hibari motioned for him to follow, so Tsuna hurriedly put on his shoes and locked the door to the house. He followed Hibari to who-knows-where, all while panicking inwardly. _I'm going to die. I can't fight. _When they stopped somewhere in the middle of a forest, his soul seemed to fly out of his body. _Good bye, Yamamoto, Gokudera-kun...It was nice knowing you..._

Without warning, Tsuna was snapped out of his thoughts when Hibari began to attack him.

_What the heck?!_ Tsuna thought frantically as he attempted to dodge the attacks. Hibari didn't seem to be pulling any of his hits, considering each one hurt like hell. _At least he's nice enough to leave my back alone..._ It went on for what seemed like years. Hibari would attack him, and Tsuna would try to dodge. Every time he successfully evaded an attack, he could see the slight curling of Hibari's lips. _He's teaching me how to dodge? Thank god, I don't have to learn how to hurt people yet..._

Two hours later, Tsuna collapsed on the grass, breathing heavily.

"Up."

He looked at Hibari and attempted to stand up again, but he couldn't move his body.

"I can't."

He braced himself for the hit that he was sure was about to come, but Hibari merely put his tonfas away instead.

"Hn."

Tsuna smiled gratefully, closing his eyes, and lay there for five minutes, catching his breath. He jolted with surprise when he felt something cold touch his face. He opened his eyes to see Hibari holding a bottle of water. _Where did he get that? Moreover, how is it still cold?!_ He shook is head. _You know what? He's _Hibari Kyoya_. Nothing ever makes sense when it comes to him._ He slowly lifted his upper body off the ground until he was in a sitting position. _Ugh...It hurts all over!_ He accepted the bottle of water and downed almost half of it in one gulp. _So refreshing~_ He looked up when Hibari gestured for him to follow. _Again? I don't wanna!_ Hibari threw a glare over his shoulder.

Tsuna followed.

He kept his gaze on his feet the whole way, making sure he wouldn't fall. _If I fell, I don't think I would be able to stand up again..._ He looked up when they reached their destination. _Kyoya's house? Why are we here?_ His unvoiced question was answered when Hibari opened the door and turned back to him.

"Make dinner."

Tsuna's eyes widened. _What? That's a joke, right?_ He looked at Hibari's face. _It doesn't look like it... Oh, what was I thinking in the first place? Hibari Kyoya never jokes._ He sighed as he trudged in and slowly made his way to the kitchen. He had been there enough times to know where things were with his eyes closed. When he finished cooking, they both ate dinner together in silence.

_Can I go home now? Please?_ Tsuna looked up at Hibari hopefully.

"You're staying here."

_Excuse me? Did he just say I'm staying here? I must have misheard, right?_

Hibari threw a duffle bag at Tsuna, which smacked him in the face. It slid down to the floor with him as he clutched his face in pain. _Ow ow ow ow ow..._ When the pain receded, he opened the bag curiously. _What the—how did he get all my things?_ He looked up at his best friend questioningly.

"The child."

_Child?_ Tsuna suddenly remembered the self-proclaimed tutor of his twin. _He probably means Reborn..._ _Wait, that means Reborn is in this, too?! Why?!_ He had comical streams of tears running down his face.

An hour later, they were sitting in front of a TV. By then, Tsuna had finally realized that there was no way around it. From what he had managed to finally get out of Hibari, he was to stay with him for who-knows-how-long. He had unofficially moved into the guest room for now. _Oh, well..._

They had been watching the news for half an hour before Tsuna finally asked the question that had been on his mind for a while.

"Kyoya?"

He received a grunt in reply and decided to take that as an invitation to continue.

"Are you..."

Hibari turned to face him as Tsuna struggled to get the question out.

"Are you...a serial killer?"

Hibari was so taken aback by the question that his expression actually changed for a second before turning back to normal. Tsuna was rewarded by a smack on the head with a tonfa. He pouted as he rubbed his head.

"Does that mean you're not?"

Hibari nodded curtly before going back to watching the news. Tsuna almost collapsed with relief. _For some reason, I really thought he might have been one..._

_Thank god he's not._

* * *

><p><strong>Yay! New chapter! Anyway, thank you so much for the favorites, follows, and reviews! They really made my day! ^_^<strong>

**By the way, I'm going to take down the poll for the pairings tomorrow, so if you haven't voted already, please do! The poll is on my profile.**


	11. Lightning Strikes

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Tsuna really didn't appreciate being woken up by a hit on the head.<p>

Sadly, that seemed to have become the norm for waking up in the mornings now. Tsuna pouted as he got up from his (hopefully) temporary bed.

"Do you have to do that _every_ day?"

Hibari simply turned and walked out of the room, leaving Tsuna to stand in the middle of the room. He sighed and rubbed his head as he went through his daily morning routine. After washing his face, getting dressed, and untangling his bed hair (which took _forever_), he finally made his way to the kitchen, yawning.

"Kyoya, what do you want for breakfast?"

There was a pause before he heard an answer come from the living room.

"Rice, grilled mackerel, and miso soup."

Tsuna nodded in the kitchen even though he knew Hibari wouldn't be able to see him as he busied himself with preparing their breakfast. He hummed silently as he went around the kitchen, preparing breakfast for the two of them. He opened the fridge and frowned at the contents. _I need to stock up soon. _He grabbed what he needed and closed the fridge door before turning around and prepping the ingredients for their breakfast, taking his time. It was a Sunday, so he was in no hurry. Thankfully, Sundays were also the one day of the week when Tsuna wouldn't have to train. _And thank god for that_, Tsuna thought as he set the table.

"Kyoya! Breakfast is ready!"

Tsuna sat down at the table as he waited for Hibari to arrive. When he sat down across from him, Tsuna clapped his hands together.

"Let's eat!"

Hibari barely acknowledged that with a nod as he picked up his chopsticks and began to eat. Tsuna was eating enthusiastically, happy that he could actually go out and have fun instead of training the whole day. _I can finally go to the arcade with Yamamoto and Gokudera-kun! _He frowned slightly as he remembered the almost-empty fridge. _I should take the chance to shop for groceries while I'm at it!_

Soon after they finished eating, there was a light tap on the door. Hibari slid open the old-fashioned wood-and-paper doors of his house (more like mansion). In front of the house were two members of the Disciplinary Committee, wearing their black jackets with the DC armband attached to one of the sleeves. They were kneeling in front of Hibari, who nodded at them. At his cue, the one in the front began to talk.

"This morning there were two robberies in third street, which were stopped immediately. The criminals were apprehended and taken to the nearest police station. There were also a few delinquents who ganged up on a girl. We were able to prevent anything from happening, and a few members safely escorted the girl home. That is all."

Hibari nodded again, and the DC members looked up at him.

"Continue patrolling the area."

"Yes, Kyo-san."

Tsuna, hearing the nickname, went to the door.

"Tetsuya-senpai! Would you like to come in for breakfast before leaving?" His gaze landed on the teen beside the Kusakabe Tetsuya, the right-hand man of the leader of the Disciplinary Committee. "Do you want to come in, too?"

They looked like they were going to refuse and glanced at Hibari. He looked at them indifferently, not caring about whether they chose to take up Tsuna on the offer or not. When Kusakabe hesitantly nodded, the other teen nodded with him. Tsuna smiled brighly.

"Come in! I'll just make something quick, and then you can go out and patrol."

Hibari disappeared into the house somewhere as Kusakabe made his way in, heading straight for the kitchen. The teen beside him entered more hesitantly. Tsuna smiled at him.

"What's wrong? Come in!"

The teen blushed slightly, which looked odd, considering he had a pompadour and was dressed all in black. Frankly, he looked like a delinquent. _Actually, everyone in the DC looks like a delinquent_, Tsuna mused as he looked at the blushing DC member.

"It's just...I've never been in Hibari-sama's house before!"

_Everyone in the Committee seems to call him "Hibari-sama", _Tsuna thought as he smiled gently. _Except for Tetsuya-senpai..._

"It's okay! It's just for breakfast! Kyoya also let you come in, so there's no problem, right?"

The teen slowly nodded as he walked beside Tsuna to the kitchen, sitting next to Kusakabe. Tsuna nodded encouragingly at the teen and addressed the both of them.

"Just sit down here, and I'll have breakfast ready in about ten minutes."

When they nodded in reply, Tsuna walked over to the fridge and took the remaining four eggs out of the fridge. He chopped up some pieces of ham and cracked two eggs, beating the yolk and the egg whites together in a bowl with some salt. He repeated the same process with the other two eggs in a separate bowl. While he buttered two pans over the stove, he started a conversation with the teen sitting at the table.

"So... What's your name?"

There was a pause as the teen looked around, as if wondering who Tsuna was talking to. Kusakabe nudged him, and he pointed at himself incredulously. When Kusakabe nodded, he hurried to answer.

"I-I'm Iitaka Kiichi."

Tsuna nodded and hummed thoughtfully as he poured the egg mixtures into the buttered pans and waited for the omelettes to firm up a bit.

"I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi, but you can call me Tsuna. It's nice to meet you!"

The teen nodded, and Kusakabe nudged him again. He jumped a bit before speaking.

"I-it's nice to meet you, too!"

Tsuna smiled as he sprinkled some cheese on the omelettes and put half of the cut up pieces of ham in each, folding them over and waiting for it to turn a golden brown. He smiled as he turned the fire off and carefully put the omelettes on two plates.

"Here!"

The two DC members ate the omelettes quickly. When they finished, they stood up and bowed to Tsuna.

"Thank you for the food!"

Tsuna waved his hands around frantically.

"It's okay! You don't have to bow!"

Kusakabe smiled and chuckled a bit as he straightened up.

"It's fun to see you flustered though."

Tsuna blushed as he tried to glare.

"Meanie!"

Kusakabe chuckled again as he left with Iitaka. Tsuna smiled and waved as they left.

"Be careful!"

Kusakabe waved back, and Iitaka glanced at him before waving too. Tsuna watched as their figures grew smaller and smaller until he could no longer see them anymore. He turned back into the house.

"Kyoya!"

Hibari materialized out of nowhere, scaring the hell out of Tsuna. He had to calm his racing heartbeat as he recovered from the surprise. _I swear to god, he's going to give me a heart attack someday..._

"I need money to buy some groceries."

Hibari reached into his back pocket, pulling out a few bills and handing them to Tsuna. Tsuna took them and stuck it in his (sadly) empty wallet.

"Thank you!"

Tsuna turned around and grabbed his jacket, putting his shoes on as he prepared to go out.

"I'm going to be out the whole day. There is a hamburger steak in the fridge that you can heat up for lunch. Just leave it in the microwave for three minutes, and it should be fine."

Hibari nodded, and Tsuna walked out.

"Bye!" he called as he turned back to wave.

He watched as Hibari's hand rose up as he waved back, and Tsuna smiled as he made his way to the junction he had agreed to meet Yamamoto and Gokudera at.

* * *

><p>Tsuna almost jumped out of his skin as he heard an explosion.<p>

_What the heck was that?!_ He whipped his head around and looked at the direction the smoke was coming from. His eyes widened and he barely heard it as the one-sided bickering between Gokudera and Yamamoto slowly stopped. _Isn't that...my house?!_

"What's wrong, Tsuna-sama?"

Tsuna looked around to see the worried faces of Gokudera and Yamamoto. He silently pointed towards the smoke. Their eyes also widened in surprise.

"Isn't that your house?"

Without warning, Tsuna began sprinting towards his house. He ignored the cries from his friends, asking him to stop. He arrived at his home out of breath and almost collapsed with relief. The house seemed to be fine. There was smoke coming out of one of the windows on the second floor, but everything else seemed to be in working order. His friends ran up next to him, barely out of breath. _Curse their stamina_... Tsuna opened the door cautiously and looked around before walking in. He made his way over to the room where the smoke seemed to be coming from and stopped. _Why is there smoke coming from Ietsugu's room?_ He braced himself for anything that may come his way as he opened the door slowly.

There was a second of stunned silence as Ietsugu and Reborn stared at Tsuna. Then, Ietsugu's face twisted into an anger-filled expression.

"What are you doing here? Get out!"

He grew angrier when he realized that Tsuna wasn't paying attention to him at all.

"You useless trash! Didn't I tell you to never come into my room?!"

Tsuna ignored him. He didn't pay attention to anything around him. The only thing he could see was the small child wearing a cow-print costume lying on the floor, trying and failing to hold in his tears. He barely registered what he was doing as he stepped forward slowly before speeding up and scooping up the child.

"Hold...it...in..."

"Shh...It's okay. It's okay now."

Tsuna rocked the child slowly in his arms until he calmed down.

"Go—"

Tsuna barely noticed as Reborn kicked Ietsugu in the head and prevented him from doing or saying anything else. He walked out of the room, still holding the baby.

"Sorry for interrupting," he said as he bowed and closed the door. The child was still sniffling a bit, but he wasn't as worked up as he had been before. He cradled the child as he left the house.

Tsuna looked up at the worried faces of his friends. He smiled.

"Sorry for worrying you."

They checked him over and smiled back tentatively as they stared at the child in his arms.

"Tsuna-sama...who is he?"

Tsuna looked down at his arms. He shrugged slightly.

"Hey, what's your name?" he asked the child softly.

The child sniffle some more.

"L-Lambo. Bovino Lambo"

Tsuna smiled gently.

"Hi, Lambo. I'm Tsuna. How about we go get some snacks, and you tell me how you ended up like this."

Lambo looked at him with a slightly suspicious gaze. Tsuna's smile brightened.

"It's okay, we're not going to hurt you, okay?"

At that, Lambo slowly nodded. Tsuna turned to Yamamoto and Gokudera and bowed his head.

"Sorry! I just suddenly changed our plans without asking you!"

"It's okay! We're your friends, Tsuna!"

"As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with the baseball idiot this time! I'll go where ever you go, Tsuna-sama!"

Tsuna looked up and smiled.

_Thank you._

* * *

><p>Bovino Lambo used to be just like any other child.<p>

He was happy, fairly innocent, and had two loving parents. He mother always stayed with him and played with him. His father wasn't always there, but he came as much as he could to see his wife and child. Lambo's father was the boss of the Bovino family. He didn't know that at the time. All he knew was that there were always a lot of scary men in black suits that guarded the house, and his mother always looked scared whenever his father would leave. But he didn't really care about any of that. His mother loved him, and so did his father. And that was enough for him.

Until his mother died.

They had been out in the garden, playing tag. Lambo was running away from his mother, laughing and screaming whenever she got too close, when she just...stopped. She stopped running, she stopped laughing, she stopped...smiling. Lambo could only watch in confusion as she collapsed on the grass, red liquid seeping out from underneath her. He heard cries for back-up as one of the scary men called an ambulance.

But he didn't care about any of that.

_Why isn't mamma moving?_ He stepped forward slightly. _Is she trying to trick me into getting close to her so she can tag me?_ He stopped moving. _But why is there red stuff under her? Why is it getting bigger?_ He moved forward again, reaching out for his mother. _What's wrong with her?_ He was so close to her now, one centimeter away from touching her...

And then he was picked up and carried away from her. He looked up to see one of the scary men. _Why is he taking me away from mamma?_ He felt tears forming in his eyes as he got further and further away. _Why are those men putting a cloth over her face? Why are they crying?_

The next thing he knew, he was dressed in a black suit, standing in front of his mother's coffin. The suit was uncomfortable. It was tight, it was scratchy, it was too heavy. But he didn't care about any of that. _Why is mamma in a box?_ He looked around at all the people around him. _Why is everyone crying?_ He stared back at his mother. _Why is mamma sleeping?_

"When is mamma going to wake up?"

He felt a searing pain across his cheek. _What?_ He reached up to touch his cheek, his eyes widening when he realized he had been slapped. He looked up at the person who had slapped him. _Papa?_ His eyes filled with tears. _Why?_ His father shook as he yelled at his son.

"SHE'S NEVER GOING TO WAKE UP!"

Lambo couldn't register what he was saying. _What? Why did papa slap me?_

"SHE'S DEAD AND SHE'S NEVER COMING BACK!"

_Mamma is dead?_ He remembered her bright smiles. _She's never going to wake up again?_ He remembered her worried face whenever she thought he had gotten lost. But he was never afraid when he got lost. Because his mother would always find him. _She's never coming back?_

Lambo no longer knew what was going on anymore. Before he knew it, everything seemed almost normal. Except it wasn't. Nothing was. He was alone, with no one to take care of him. His father never came home anymore, only coming back to visit the gravestone that now sat in the backyard. The only one he had was Aunt Ottavia. She cared for him. She tried as hard as she could. But it wasn't good enough. The next thing he knew, they were having another funeral, and another gravestone was placed in their backyard.

Lambo didn't ask questions this time.

Lambo went through every single day as if in a daze. No one ever came close to him anymore. He missed the warm arms of his aunt. He missed the laughter that used to fill the house every day. But most of all, he missed the warm smile of his mother. _But she's never coming back_, he reminded himself. _Neither of them are coming back._

So he cried.

He cried at almost every little thing. He cried when he tripped, he cried when he burnt his tongue, he cried for seemingly no reason. It was, he learned, the only way he could get someone to pay attention. But the most important person never payed attention to him. _Why?_ He watched as his father left the house, never sparing one glance back at him. _Why?_ He watched his father visited the graves, his smiles now long gone. _Why?_ He mustered up the courage to wave his father good-bye as he left the house one day.

His father never waved back.

Lambo woke up one day and lay in bed, facing up at the ceiling. He didn't know why he had woken up. He just had. He looked to his left when he heard voices, and he stared at the shadows of people underneath the door as they moved around.

"Damn it!"

He nearly jumped when he heard someone curse suddenly. _Papa?_ He listened harder to the voices.

"That damn Vongola! I swear, if it weren't for Reborn..."

_Reborn? Who's Reborn?_

"If someone took down that damn hit man, I would fucking adore them."

"You know, I heard he was in some Japanese town called Namimori. Apparently he's training the next Vongola boss."

Lambo turned his back to the door, no longer listening to their conversation. _Papa would adore them? Maybe...Maybe if I..if I took down Reborn...would he finally pay attention?_

The next morning, the Bovino family would find at least fifty grenades and guns missing, as well as their prized ten-year bazooka.

If they bothered to check, they would also find one five-year old child missing, too.

_Namimori, here I come._

When Lambo had finally made his way to the house of the future Vongola Decimo—and by extension, the place where Reborn currently resided—he had been ready. At least, he thought he had been. The plan had been to go in, blow up Reborn, get out, and tell his father all about what he had done. When he had found out that Reborn was just a child just like him, well, that just make the whole job easier, didn't it? Not. Obviously, that hadn't worked, as all attacks against the world's greatest hit man were immediately deflected. Of course, Lambo hadn't known that he was the world's greatest hit man at the time. He was very sadly uninformed of most everything, actually.

All he knew was that this Reborn was actually very strong, and that the future Vongola Decimo was downright cruel. Every time he tried and failed to land a hit on Reborn, the blond would just smile and look down at him condescendingly. After the fiftieth time in an hour, he had been trying and failing to hold back his tears. _Damn it!_ He tried to glare at them and failed because his eyes kept blurring with his tears. _Damn you all, making fun of me! I will defeat Reborn! _He had been about to whip out his last resort—the ten-year bazooka—when a brunet had suddenly come into the room and scooped him up.

Before he knew it, he was suddenly enveloped in a warm hug. _Oh no! I've been caught! Damn it!_ However, the longer he stayed there, the more he wanted to. He looked up at the stranger, who was muttering something to him. His tears slowed down as he calmed, comforted by the warmth. He barely noticed as they left the room. He barely noticed as they left the house and met up with two very tall people.

"Hey, what's your name?"

Lambo looked up, and his eyes met with warm, chocolate brown ones.

"L-Lambo. Bovino Lambo."

The stranger smiled, and his warm brown eyes seemed to get even warmer.

"Hi, Lambo. I'm Tsuna. How about we go get some snacks, and you tell me how you ended up like this."

Lambo tensed up slightly. _Is he trying to drug me? Or maybe kidnap me?_ The few days he had spent immersed in the darkness by himself had made him suspicious of almost everyone and everything. The stranger—Tsuna—smiled bigger.

"It's okay, we're not going to hurt you, okay?"

Lambo looked up into his warm, honest eyes, and he just couldn't say no. He nodded slowly and watched as Tsuna's smile seemed to grow even brighter. He barely noticed as Tsuna apologized to his friends. All he saw was Tsuna's bright, warm smile. It was almost as bright as..._mamma's smile._

Lambo didn't know a lot of things. He didn't know that Reborn was the world's greatest hit man. He didn't know that the future Vongola Decimo was cruel; probably one of the most cruel people out there. All he knew was that this Tsuna was warm, almost as warm as his mother.

And he didn't want him to go.

* * *

><p>After Lambo had calmed down and they had gotten some snacks, everyone sat down on a park bench.<p>

Tsuna watched patiently as Lambo devoured his snacks.

"So, Lambo, do you mind telling us how you got here?"

Lambo shook his head and began to explain how he had overheard his father talking about a "Reborn" and how he had stolen his family's "ten-year bazooka" and a lot of dangerous weapons in the hopes of killing the hit man. Tsuna honestly didn't understand any of it, and his head felt like it was about to explode. He didn't even notice Gokudera grabbing the child and dragging him off to the side as he whispered to the child conspiratorially. _Whaaaaat?! What? Ten-year Bazooka? Hit man? Killing?! What the heck is even going on anymore?!_

"Tsuna-sama!"

Tsuna looked up at his friend's shout.

"What's wrong, Gokudera-kun?"

Gokudera held up the child.

"He was just playing around. His mother died, and his father started to neglect him, so he ran away. He just ended up and that basta—I mean, Ietsugu's—room because he saw Reborn around and thought it would be fun to play with him."

Tsuna stared at Lambo, wondering if it was true. When the child nodded—a bit reluctantly—Tsuna nodded and relaxed.

"Oh. Thank god! I thought my head was going to explode from all of the weird things he said!"

He smiled, relieved. Gokudera smiled back at him happily while Lambo struggled to get out of his arms. When they left the park, Lambo was back in Tsuna's arms, and they were all pumped up for a round at the arcade.

Everyone finally split up when the sun set.

"Bye, Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto!"

They waved good-bye as they went to their respective homes. When neither Tsuna nor Lambo could see them anymore, Tsuna looked down at Lambo.

"Now, Lambo, we have to go shopping for groceries before going home. Is that okay with you?"

Lambo just nodded, happy to stay in his arms longer. Tsuna got a shopping cart at the supermarket and placed Lambo inside of it. For a moment, Lambo dearly missed the warmth, but he relaxed in his seat when he realized that Tsuna needed his arms for shopping. When they were done, Tsuna looked down at Lambo, who was walking next to him.

"Do you have anywhere to stay?"

Lambo looked up at him and thought for a second before shaking his head. Tsuna thought for a while. _Keeping him with Ietsugu and Reborn might be dangerous... I don't really want impose on Yamamoto or Gokudera-kun... But I don't want to leave him alone, either! Oh, well. I guess..._

"Lambo, do you want to come with me?"

The smile that Tsuna received in answer was almost blinding. He smiled back and led the way to Hibari's house.

_Now to convince him to let Lambo stay..._

* * *

><p><strong>And the winner of the poll is...1827! (No surprise there). Anyway, as I said before, this fic is <em>not<em> centered on romance, so there will not be anything past some fluff here and there. Because fluff is so cute! I also made a small omake if you want to read it.**

**Omake:**

Iitaka Kiichi glanced at Kusakabe before looking back in front of them.

"What's wrong?"

Iitaka blushed slightly when he saw that Kusakabe had noticed his glances.

"Well, um...It's just.."

"It's okay, what's the problem?"

"Who was that 'Tsuna' person? Why is he staying at Hibari-sama's house?"

Kusakabe looked slightly surprised at the outburst.

"Tsuna-san is Kyo'san's best friend. They've been friends for about...five years or so. As for what he's doing in the house...Kyo-san is teaching him how to fight, so he is staying there until further notice. He cooks and cleans the house and stuff."

Iitaka looked down for a while before looking at Kusakabe with a weird look on his face.

"What?" Kusakabe asked again.

"It's just...doesn't this 'Tsuna' sound just like a housewife?"

Kusakabe couldn't get the thought out of his head for the rest of the day.

* * *

><p><strong>Wow, this is my longest chapter so far! Thanks for all the follows and favorites! Please review!<strong>


	12. New Arrivals

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>"No."<p>

"Please?"

"No."

"Come on! He's homeless! You can't just leave a five year old by himself!"

"Yes I can."

"You demon!"

"What else is new?"

"Oh my god, did I just hear _the_ Hibari Kyoya make a joke?"

"No."

"Can he _please_ stay?"

"No."

"I'll make you hamburger steak whenever you ask me to."

Tsuna could see Hibari begin to waver. _Yes! Maybe it was worth it to get beaten up for refusing to give him a hamburger steak every day!_ He could still see the bruises. He watched as Hibari shook his head slightly.

"No."

_Hmph. _It was now time for his trump card. Tsuna tilted his head down and stared up at Hibari with wide eyes. He made sure to tear up slightly and stuck his lower lip out.

"Please?"

"...Hn."

"Is that a yes?"

"Hn."

Tsuna smiled triumphantly as the fake tears dried up almost instantly. _Yes!_ He discreetly high-fived Lambo. Hibari turned around to go into the living room, uncrossing his arms. Tsuna smiled brightly at him as he passed.

"Thank you!"

Hibari curtly nodded and brushed past him. Tsuna heard the television turn on as Hibari switched the channels, most likely searching for the news. He looked down to the child in is arms and smiled at him.

"Do you want to stay in my room or in your own room?"

Lambo answered without any hesitation.

"Your room."

Tsuna nodded and crouched down, letting go of Lambo. He patted the child's head and stood up.

"I need to go make dinner now, so you can do whatever you want until I'm done. Just make sure not to make too much noise, okay? Kyoya doesn't like it when people are too loud. Ah, make sure not to make a mess, either." _It'll add on to my workload..._

Lambo merely nodded and watched as Tsuna smiled again as he walked into the kitchen. After a moment's hesitation, he walked into the living room and sat as far away from the room's occupant as possible, but made sure he could still watch the news. _The mean person doesn't want me here_, Lambo thought. _So I should probably stay away from him._ About an hour later, Tsuna walked into the room to see Lambo sitting right next to Hibari. He smiled softly before clapping his hands.

"Dinner's ready!"

Lambo jumped and paled when he realized where he was. _What?! When did I get here?_ He looked up at Hibari as he cowered back, shrinking as far into the cushions as possible when he saw Hibari reaching out a hand towards him. He shut his eyes and squeezed them tightly as he braced himself for whatever was coming. He opened one eye slowly when he only felt something pat him on the head once. He opened his other eye when he saw Hibari stand up and walk to the kitchen, Tsuna smiling widely the whole time. _Did he just...pat my head?_ He stared at Hibari's back incredulously even as Tsuna walked over to him and scooped him up.

"Isn't that great? You guys are getting along so well already!"

Lambo looked up to Tsuna's bright, reassuring smile. _Don't worry, nobody will hurt you here._ He relaxed as he smiled back.

"Yeah!"

* * *

><p>Lambo soon learned the rules of the house.<p>

He learned them the hard way. And really, the rules should really be called: "Ways to NOT Piss Off Hibari Kyoya".

1. _Do NOT make loud noises._

Lambo had been playing with a new inflatable beach ball he had gotten from Tsuna, when he had suddenly tripped. Since leaving his house, he hadn't cried as much, but now he bawled as he rubbed his bleeding knee. Tsuna had gone shopping because he forgot to buy somethings at the supermarket, so it was just Lambo and Hibari in the house. Lambo immediately shut up when he was whacked on the head with a tonfa, and looked up into silvery-gray eyes, his eyes tearing up even more as he burst out sobbing again. He was hit on the head with a tonfa again, this time harder, and he shut his mouth as tightly as possible, trying to not let any sound escape. The tonfa-wielding teen nodded and grunted in approval before disappearing back into the house. Lambo continued to cry, but he made sure to do so quietly this time.

Thankfully, Tsuna had come back soon after and made sure to patch up Lambo's knee after giving him a grape-flavored lollipop.

2. _Do NOT break anything. _

Lambo had been running around inside the house with only a towel wrapped around his waist as he tried to get away from Tsuna.

"I don't want to take a bath!"

"You have to! It's not bad, I promise!"

The last time Lambo had taken a bath, he had almost drowned. No one had come to save him, so he had to make his way out all by himself. He had managed somehow, but he vowed to never take another bath again.

While he had been running, he hadn't been looking in front of him, so he ended up bumping into a small cabinet in the hallway. Luckily, he didn't get hurt, but unluckily, that cabinet happened to have a ceramic vase full of flowers on top of it (courtesy of Tsuna trying to brighten up the place). Lambo watched as it fell, his eyes widening as he tried to catch it, to no avail. It seemed to hit the floor in slow motion, shattering into little pieces as the water spread across the wood, leaves and petals all over the place.

_Oh shit,_ was the only thought in both Tsuna and Lambo's mind at the time (growing up in the mafia hadn't really made a good influence on Lambo). They both turned around in fear as Hibari stalked up to them. They were both whacked on the head with his tonfas.

Lambo magically overcame his fear of baths.

3. The final, golden rule: _Do NOT make Tsuna cry. Don't hurt him either. Better yet, don't do anything to make Tsuna have any negative reactions._

Thankfully, Lambo hadn't been subjected to punishment for this one.

He had been walking with his newly dubbed "mother" (because really, Tsuna acted a lot like a mother to just _not_ be called one), when a group of teens had approached them.

"Hey, Dame-Tsuna! Good timing!"

Lambo already didn't like these people. _Mamma is not "no good"!_ He glared at the teens as fiercely as possible, but they just ignored him.

"We were just thinking that we wanted to go to the arcade! You wouldn't happen to have any money on you, would you?"

"Ah, well. Um. Ah..."

"Just shut up and give us your money."

"But I don't—"

Tsuna was shut up by a punch to the stomach. Lambo suddenly developed a deep, festering hate for these teens. He was about to pull out a grenade when he remembered Gokudera's words the first time he had met them. _"Listen, you dumb cow. Tsuna-sama doesn't know about the mafia. You can't do or say anything that might pull him into it."_ Lambo had nodded, surprised, and just went along with the really offending story that Gokudera had cooked up.

Lambo remembered the pure, innocent smiles of his "mamma" and slowly put away his grenades. _I don't want that smile to go away..._ He closed his eyes, not wanting to see Tsuna get beaten up. He opened them again when he heard cries of pain from the teens that had ganged up on them. He saw flashes of metal as the demon of Namimori beat up the teens. When Hibari finally stopped and looked at them, Lambo could see the angry and slightly feral look in his eyes. _If people want to hurt Tsunayoshi, they'll have to go through me._

It was a good thing that Lambo never had any intention of hurting his "mamma" anyway.

(He also had a sudden epiphany).

* * *

><p>They gained a new freeloader when Tsuna brought back a nine year old child with sandy brown hair.<p>

Apparently, "mamma" had been walking back from school when he saw the child—Fuuta—curled up in an alleyway. He couldn't just leave the child (who was obviously homeless) all by himself, so he brought the child home. Papa—Lambo had to shake his head—_Hibari_ no longer saw the point in arguing against Tsuna, so Fuuta was let into the household with less of a hassle than when Lambo had been brought in.

Lambo was immediately suspicious. "Mamma" might trust almost everyone (and Hibari trusted Tsuna's decisions), but that didn't mean Lambo did. If "mamma" trusted everyone, then Lambo would have to be the one to suspect everyone until they were deemed trustworthy.

So he began to observe—_not stalk, dammit!_—the new arrival.

Interestingly enough, the new arrival was carrying a huge book that was about half his size. He called it his "Ranking Book", and was strangely protective of it.

Even more interesting was the fact that when "mamma" mumbled a question once, objects began floating along with the nine year old, and the nine year old had images of galaxies and stars in his eyes. After a few seconds, the objects dropped—Lambo made sure to catch the fragile ones—and Fuuta was writing furiously in the Ranking Book. When he showed the list to Tsuna, he patted Fuuta's head and smiled at him before making dinner.

(It was the first time "mamma" had successfully gotten "papa" to eat dessert.)

When Fuuta began to call "mamma" his big brother, Lambo reluctantly stopped "observing" him and deemed him trustworthy.

They now had a new roommate.

* * *

><p>They gained another one when a girl the same age as Lambo attacked Ietsugu.<p>

Tsuna had been in the school's courtyard, walking to the gates, when he saw his brother floating. _Fuuta?_ He looked around for the sandy haired child and looked back when he couldn't find him. When he had learned that Fuuta could make things float, he had decided to just not question anything. Things were getting ridiculous anyway, with a baby tutor, a teen who could pull out dynamite from out of nowhere and light them in under a second, and a cow-child. It would be better for Tsuna's sanity if he just didn't question anything anymore.

_Yup,_ he thought as he nodded and watched a little girl in Chinese clothing beat up his brother. _It's better if I just don't question anything._

"Must kill target!" the girl yelled in broken Japanese as Ietsugu crashed into a wall.

"I'm not your target!" the blond yelled back, red in the face.

Tsuna watched as his brother's face turned interesting colors. _This is interesting and all, but I should probably stop this before Ietsugu decides to kill the poor girl_. With that, Tsuna ran in, scooped up the little girl, and ran away. The little girl struggled in his arms the whole time. He put her down when he decided they were a safe distance away and bent down to look her in the eye before she ran away.

"Why were you calling my brother your 'target'?"

The girl took out a picture of a fat man in a suit. He was drinking a glass of wine and was looking at another man with a superior look. In other words, he looked like the exact opposite of Ietsugu. _Except for the condescending look_, Tsuna mused as he stared at the picture. _They've both got that down perfectly. Seriously though, Ietsugu isn't even old enough to drink alcohol! _Tsuna glanced up at the girl and asked her a question.

"Do you have bad eyesight?"

The girl began to splutter and blushed as some markings appeared on her forehead. _What is that? _Tsuna wondered as the markings counted down. The girl seemed to realize something and ran away as fast as possible. Tsuna stared after her questioningly. After there was an explosion some ways down the street, the girl came back (calming Tsuna who thought she had been caught up in the explosion), and nodded shyly at him. _So she does have bad eyesight._ Tsuna nodded in contemplation as he scooped up the girl again.

"Well, the man in that picture is not my brother."

The girl stared up at him questioningly.

"Your 'target' is not the person you were attacking earlier."

She shook her head and pointed at the picture stubbornly.

"Target."

Tsuna shook his head. _She won't believe me, huh..._ He changed direction and walked into a convenience store. He looked over their selection of reading glasses. _It'll take to much time to get prescription glasses, so I'll just find one that can let her see better._ After testing a few of them, he finally found one that was very close to her prescription.

"There! Now look at the picture."

When the girl looked at the picture, Tsuna could see the surprise in her face. Then she blushed, hurriedly took of the glasses, and ran away again. Tsuna looked in her direction nervously when he saw another explosion. _Seriously, what's with the explosions?_ He shook his head slightly. _No. Don't think about it. Do not question anything, Tsuna. It'll greatly benefit your sanity_. The girl came back to Tsuna nodding with his eyes closed. She stared at him questioningly before bowing.

"I-Pin sorry!"

Tsuna opened his eyes in surprise and stared down at the girl. He smiled and bent down.

"It's okay! It was all just a misunderstanding!"

She stared up at him with awe before she jumped and turned around.

"Must say sorry to yellow-hair!"

Tsuna grabbed her before she could run off and smiled nervously.

"Um...I don't think that's a good idea..."

She tilted her head curiously.

"Why?"

He looked to the side.

"Well, he's not exactly...forgiving."

She stared at him questioningly. He closed his eyes and sighed softly.

"I don't think he took you attacking him to well. He might try to hurt you..." _Actually, he most definitely will try to hurt her..._

She continued to stare at him, and Tsuna sighed again before standing and picking her up. He held the pair of glasses in one of his hands.

"I'll just buy these for you, and then you can go home."

The girl just sat in his arms silently as he bought the glasses and went outside. He stopped outside of the store and looked at her.

"Where do you live? I can bring you there." He reached into the plastic bag hanging off his arm, making sure not to drop the girl. "Here! Make sure not to break them!"

She took the glasses slowly and put them on, looking up at Tsuna. She smiled.

"Thank you!"

Tsuna smiled back.

"So where do you live?"

He knew something was wrong when she looked down.

"I-Pin no...have home."

Tsuna smiled and nudged her with his arm. She looked up, her eyes teary.

"How about this? You can stay with me! There's another kid named Lambo who's about the same age as you, and there's also a nine year old named Fuuta. You can play with them when you get bored."

When Tsuna arrived at Hibari's house, Hibari took one look at the child and didn't even argue.

* * *

><p>When Lambo had started calling Tsuna "mamma", Tsuna just shrugged it off and hoped he would stop soon.<p>

It never did.

Soon, Tsuna got used to being called "mamma", but that didn't mean he liked it. But whenever he looked at Lambo's shining eyes and happy smiles when he went up to Tsuna and called him "mamma", Tsuna couldn't help but smile back. _As long as he's happy, I guess it's fine..._

Then he picked up Fuuta.

When he had first seen Fuuta, the nine year old had been sitting in a dark alley, hugging his knees. He looked miserable. So Tsuna took it upon himself to bring the child home, and prepared himself for the extra work that was sure to come. Now he had to cook for more people and clean up more messes, but when Fuuta called him "big brother" and apologized, Tsuna couldn't really bring himself to care anymore.

He knew that bringing in I-Pin would add to his workload even more.

He was right.

No matter how much she tried, she ended up making a mess almost as much as Lambo did. Whenever she tried to stop Lambo, it wouldn't always work out the way she wanted it to. But when she began to call him "mamma" too, he couldn't stay mad. Whenever he looked at her smiling and laughing as she played with Lambo and Fuuta, he didn't care about how much work it was to take care of three children.

It had been his choice to bring them in, and he didn't regret it.

(Although he would prefer it if Lambo and I-Pin would stop calling him "mamma".)

(He was really beginning to question his masculinity.)

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows! This kind of feels like a filler chapter, but I managed to introduce two more characters, so I hope it's okay...<strong>

**Please review!**


	13. Bucking Horse Dino

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Dino didn't like the future Vongola Decimo.<p>

He was cruel, manipulative, heartless, and basically everything a villain in an action movie would be. Except he didn't have a sob-story past to explain why he was so twisted. When Dino had first heard that his former tutor was teaching the future Vongola Decimo, he had scheduled a plane trip to Namimori immediately. He wanted to see how his former teacher was doing, and he really wanted to meet the future mafia boss. After all, he would probably end up allying with the teen in the future, so there was no harm in establishing a relationship beforehand, right?

Wrong.

Dino had been invited into the Sawada household—no matter what you think, he had_ not _broken in, dammit_—_and made himself comfortable in the soon-to-be boss's room, waiting patiently for the teen to return home from school. He had made sure to look cool, even bringing in an armchair and turning around when the teen entered the room like one of those villains in the television shows. After all, first impressions are everything. He had expected some exclamations of maybe: "Who the hell is he?" or "Wow, so cool!"

He had not expected the teen's first reaction to be "Reborn, what is this stupid-looking idiot doing in my room?"

Dino had almost popped a vein in annoyance before listing off everything wrong with the teen.

"Hm...You're no good!"

The teen had merely gaped at him.

"Excuse me?!"

Dino rested an elbow on one of the arms of the armchair and smirked.

"You don't have that 'boss' aura."

The teen seemed to have gathered his wits together as his expression slowly morphed into one of anger.

"What did you say?!"

Dino observed his body language and sighed internally.

"You present yourself horribly. You are too quick to anger, and you act like a dirty delinquent."

"Your hair is smelly," Reborn added in helpfully.

"In other words, you have zero disposition as a boss."

Dino watched in satisfaction as the teen looked at the floor, seemingly giving up as he sat down across the table from Dino.

Then he looked up.

And Dino could see it. He could see the barely suppressed fury in the teen's eyes as he glared at Dino, filled with hatred. He could see the tightly clenched fists as the teen tried to hold himself back from doing something—what exactly that something was, Dino didn't know. And for the first time since Reborn had finally left his mansion, he could barely suppress the shivers of fear he felt from the heated glare. He glanced down at his hand for a second in surprise before looking up at the teen across from him again, refusing to back down. _Reborn would kill me if I did,_ Dino thought as he stared back at the teen. _But still, this is the first time in a while that I've been so...shaken._

The staring match was interrupted when the teen's mother entered the room, holding a tray with steaming cups of tea on it.

"Ie-kun, Dino-san, Reborn-kun, I brought some tea and snacks for you!"

Dino almost feared for his life when the teen smiled and his expression turned almost feral.

"Mom."

Nana hummed in acknowledgement as she set down the cups in front of the three of them.

"What is it, Ie-kun?"

Dino almost spit out his tea when he heard what the teen said next.

"This man is disturbing me. I can't study like this!" he said, his angry expression turning innocent as he turned to look at his mother, who turned to look at Dino the minute the sentence was finished. _She doesn't actually believe that, does she?_

"I'm sorry, but you seem to be disturbing my poor Ie-kun's study time. He has to work hard to stay at the top of the class, so when you finish the tea, would it be too much trouble for you to leave?"

Dino had to put everything he had learned into practice as he stopped his mouth from gaping open in surprise. His gaze switched back and forth between Nana's painfully honest face and the teen across from him. _What the heck? She actually believed him?_ Dino's gaze went back to the teen, who was hiding a triumphant smile behind his teacup. _This is ridiculous! _He shook his head slowly, partly in answer to Nana's question, and partly out of incredulity as he drank his tea.

Dino barely noticed as he was led out of the house. _Sawada Ietsugu is manipulative. He managed to get rid of me without even fighting! He also has a superiority complex..._ DIno remembered the pure anger in Ietsugu's eyes after he insulted him. _No one would be that angry over what I said._ He glanced up to the second-floor window and was only slightly surprised when onyx eyes stared back at him. He shook his head inconspicuously at Reborn before he disappeared into the house.

_Sawada Ietsugu will bring down the Vongola._

* * *

><p>Tsuna had been bringing the kids back home when he bumped into a blond foreigner.<p>

He almost had a heart attack when he saw the blond hair, thinking it was his brother. Then he shook his head. _He's too tall to be Ietsugu...so who is he? Wait, that doesn't really matter right now._

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly as he helped the blond get up from the sidewalk.

"Yeah, I'm fine! It's all good!" The foreigner smiled and rubbed the back of his head as he waved his other hand around, trying to reassure Tsuna.

Tsuna smiled back, relieved.

"That's good."

He was about to continue walking (Hibari would be _pissed_ if he was late) when the blond grabbed his arm.

"Wait!"

Tsuna turned around, startled.

"What's wrong? You're not actually hurt anywhere, are you? You _are_ okay, right?"

The foreigner seemed taken aback at the barrage of questions.

"No, no! I'm okay! It's just...I lost my pet turtle, and I can't find him anywhere! Do you think you can help?"

Tsuna paused and looked down at the children who stared back at him, not really caring about his decision.

"I'll help you search for him! It's the least I can do."

The foreigner smiled brightly and held out a piece of paper.

"Oh, thank god! Here's my phone number. Call me if you find him!"

Tsuna took the piece of paper and put the number into his phone. He looked up to see the foreigner still holding his hand out.

"Oh, by the way, I'm Dino Cavallone. What's your name?"

Tsuna looked at the extended hand in confusion before reaching out and taking it with some hesitation. _Is this what I'm supposed to do?_ The blond didn't react negatively in any way, so Tsuna just put it down as some Westerner thing.

"T-Tsuna. Sawada Tsunayoshi. It's nice to meet you!"

Dino froze for a moment. _Sawada? Isn't that the surname of the future Vongola boss? _He shrugged it off. _It's probably just a coincidence..._

"It's nice to meet you, too!"

Tsuna almost jerked his hand away when the foreigner began to shake it up and down. He forced himself to relax. _It's probably just something they do in his country._ He looked at the children again worriedly.

"Do you guys want to go home or help me search?"

They glanced at each other before coming to a silent agreement and looking up again.

"We'll go with Tsuna-nii/mamma!"

Tsuna smiled and picked up Lambo with one arm, holding Fuuta's hand with his other. I-Pin grabbed onto his pant leg as they began to walk away in search of the missing turtle. He turned his head when he realized Dino hadn't moved.

"Is something wrong?"

Dino shook his head slowly from side to side before opening his mouth.

"No... You guys are just really close, but you don't look blood related at all!"

Tsuna glanced down at the children sadly as he shook his head.

"We're not. Lambo ran away from home, so I decided to take him in. I found Fuuta all by himself in some really dark alleyway, so I took him home, too. I-Pin...I first saw her when she was beating up my brother. It was kind of weird... When I found out she didn't have anywhere to go, I took her with me. Now we're like this." He smiled sadly. "At least they're happy now."

Dino stared at them for another minute before opening his mouth again.

"...Brother?"

Tsuna looked at Dino with a surprised look before his face split into a smile.

"Yeah, I have a brother."

His smile dropped a bit.

"Sawada Ietsugu."

* * *

><p>When Dino heard Tsuna's story, he was speechless.<p>

He looked at the children that were currently clutching the small teen almost protectively. _That's...so sad! These poor children! What should I say?_ When he opened his mouth to offer his dearest apologies, he had not expected that question to pop out.

"...Brother?"

_Ah! What the heck is wrong with me!_ He had to force himself not to face-palm. _That is not what I wanted to say! I really am useless without my subordinates! _Judging by the younger male's reaction, he hadn't been expecting it either. He looked slightly surprised until his face split into a soft smile as he confirmed it.

"Yeah, I have a brother."

Dino watched as his smile seemed to darken a bit. _Why? Do they not get along or something?_

"Sawada Ietsugu."

Dino couldn't stop his jaw from dropping as he stared, wide-eyed, at the teen.

"Sawada Ietsugu?!"

The teen turned his whole body around and looked at him, surprised.

"...Yes. You know him?"

Dino was too busy trying to wrap his mind around the information to answer him. _Him? The brother of Sawada Ietsugu? But...but...he's so nice! And patient! And...and...the complete opposite of Ietsugu! What the heck?_

Dino looked up at the teen and studied him closely. _I guess they do look somewhat alike..._ _Not very, though._

When he noticed he was leaving the male hanging, he quickly answered the question.

"Ah, well... I met him once. It wasn't a...very pleasant experience."

He watched as the teen nodded sadly.

"Yeah...Ietsugu isn't exactly a nice person..."

_Well that's the understatement of the year, _Dino thought sarcastically. He almost didn't notice when the teen turned around again.

"Well, if we want to find your turtle, we'd better hurry!"

Dino looked up, startled, to see the teen walking away in search of his turtle. _Oh, right! I need to find Enzo before he touches water..._

With that, he turned and ran off in search of his turtle in the opposite direction.

* * *

><p>Tsuna almost had a heart attack.<p>

He watched with wide eyes as a small turtle crossed the street slowly while the cars were still moving. _Holy crap! What the heck?!_ He looked between the children and the turtle frantically. _What do I do?!_ When the turtle was almost run over, he made a split-second decision.

"Alright, you guys stay here. Fuuta, take care of Lambo and I-Pin."

Fuuta stared up at him curiously as Tsuna handed over Lambo, who had fallen asleep some time during their search.

"What's wrong, Tsuna-nii?"

Tsuna pointed out towards the street.

"I think that might be Dino-san's turtle."

Fuuta looked closely to where he was pointing, and his eyes widened.

"He's going to get hit!"

Tsuna nodded.

"Exactly. That's why I'm going to try and get him before he does."

Fuuta turned a frightened gaze upon him.

"But what if you get hurt too?"

Tsuna smiled and patted Fuuta's head.

"It's okay, I'll figure it out somehow." _I say that, but I don't really have a plan..._

Fuuta didn't seemed really reassured by that, and hesitated.

"Just...please be careful."

Tsuna nodded reassuringly.

"Don't worry!"

Then he turned to the street and ran in as fast as he could. There were a few honks as cars came a centimeter away from hitting him, but his focus was on getting the turtle to safety. He scooped up the turtle as he ran, and managed to get to the other side in one piece. _Thank god, _he thought as he clutched the turtle protectively and turned to look across the street.

He almost had another heart attack.

The cars that had stopped just in time to miss him had been hit by another incoming car behind them. The result was a row of cars stuck to each other. _Oh, crap..._ Tsuna collapsed onto the ground from the sudden gloom that had overtaken him. _I'm so screwed... I'm going to be arrested, and jailed, and__—_

He was shaken out of his gloomy thoughts when the blond foreigner came running to him.

"Tsuna! Are you okay?!"

Tsuna raised his head and grimaced as he held out the turtle.

"I found your turtle crossing the street while the cars were still moving, so I tried to get him without getting either of us hit."

He felt like dying when he looked over the burning wreckage.

"Neither of us got hit, but something almost as bad happened," he said as he gestured over to the accident. Dino turned around slowly.

"Well, shit."

Tsuna chuckled humorlessly.

"Yeah."

When he heard the sound of sirens, his mood got even gloomier. For some reason, Dino paled. Tsuna looked up when he felt a tap on his shoulder, and looked at the panicked face of Dino.

"Thank you for saving my turtle! I'msorryI'vegottagonowbye!"

With that, he ran off as fast as possible, holding his turtle to his chest. Tsuna was left alone, barely registering as Fuuta ran over with Lambo and I-Pin.

_Did he just abandon me?_

* * *

><p>After explaining to the police that this whole thing was just an accident and he had just been trying to save a turtle that had been trying to cross the street and no, he was <em>not<em> suicidal, Tsuna was finally free to go home.

He dragged his feet on the way home as he clutched onto Fuuta's hand. _So...tired... Those cops are so persistent..._ He stopped at a shout from someone and turned around.

"Hey, Tsuna!"

When he saw who it was, Tsuna immediately turned back around and picked up the pace.

"Wait! Don't run away! I'm sorry!"

Tsuna slowed a bit as he shouted back.

"You're sorry for leaving me to deal with the cops alone while you ran off with the turtle that was the cause of everything?!"

Dino caught up to him (not without tripping a few times) and clapped a hand on his shoulder as he turned Tsuna around to face him.

"I know that was really rude of me—"

Tsuna stared at him with a deadpan expression. _That's an understatement._

"—And I probably shouldn't have done that.

Tsuna nodded in agreement. _You really shouldn't have._

"But, well...you see... I don't get along very well with the cops..."

The next thing Dino knew, Tsuna had wrenched away from his grip and was backing away slowly.

"What's wrong?"

Tsuna stared at him nervously.

"If you're a criminal, then it's not safe for us to stay close to you," Tsuna said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was, in his mind.

"I'm not a criminal! I'm a mafia boss!"

Tsuna backed away even further.

"A mafioso is a criminal..."

Dino put a fist on his other hand as his eyes shined with the realization.

"Right! I forgot!"

Tsuna took slow steps backward. _Great, not only did I manage to get acquainted with a mafia boss, this mafia boss in particular seems to need mental help!_

"But really. I'm so sorry about leaving you there. Thank you so much for finding Enzo!"

Tsuna nodded as he smiled nervously. _The faster I get away, the better._

"Seriously though, you'd be a much better choice to lead Vongola than your brother!"

Tsuna stopped moving and froze in place. _What._

"Your brother is not fit to be the boss at all! I think Vongola Nono made a mistake sending Reborn to train Ietsugu as the future Decimo!"

_Who? What? Reborn?_

"Your brother would lead the Vongola to its downfall. You'd probably be the one to lead it to its greatest heights!"

Tsuna raised his hand, and Dino looked flustered a bit as he started to apologize.

"Oh, sorry for rambling. I'm probably taking a lot of time out of—"

"Ietsugu is being trained to be the boss of what?"

Dino looked at Tsuna in surprise.

"Your brother is being trained to be the boss of the most influential mafia family: the Vongola!"

Tsuna opened and closed his mouth in surprise. _Ietsugu is being trained to take over a...mafia family?! _He remembered the dynamite that Gokudera always carried around. _Is Gokudera-kun also part of the mafia?_ His mind flashed back to what Lambo had said when they had been at the park. _Is Lambo in the mafia, too? _He glanced down at the two children that were still awake. _I-Pin and Fuuta are also probably part of the mafia..._

Meanwhile, Dino was panicking because of the lack of response from the teen. _Is he okay? He knew about the mafia already, didn't he? _He glanced at the still unresponsive male._ But judging from his reaction, he didn't! Reborn is going to kill me!_ He spoke up, his voice laced with fear.

"H-hey, that was all just a joke, okay? Don't take me seriously!" _Please_, he added mentally.

When Tsuna looked up and nodded, still deep in thought, he heaved out a sigh. _Oh, thank god._

"W-well, I've gotta go! Thanks again for finding my turtle!"

Tsuna lifted up a hand and slowly waved good-bye as Dino walked away, barely noticing as the foreigner tripped and fell flat on his face multiple times. His hand slowly dropped as he looked down at the children. _He seemed really serious when he was talking about the mafia... I don't think he was joking. I guess...there's really only one way to find out._ He gulped as he braced himself.

"Hey, Fuuta, I-Pin."

They turned their heads to stare up at Tsuna, giving him their attention. He closed his eyes briefly before opening them again.

"Are you...are you in the mafia?"

Without hesitation, they nodded. Tsuna felt like his body was filled with lead. _I...I guess Dino-san really wasn't joking..._

"Is...is Ietsugu also in the mafia? You know, the blond person that you attacked the day I met you."

Tsuna watched with dread as I-Pin's head moved up and down. That single motion made Tsuna's world crash around him. He stared into space, his eyes wide. _Why? Why didn't anyone tell me?_ Gokudera was obviously in the mafia, too. That would explain why he attacked Ietsugu and carried dynamite all the time. _Why didn't he tell me?_ Lambo was also in the mafia. That would certainly explain his original story about him coming to Namimori because he wanted to kill Reborn. _Why didn't they tell me? _He was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt a tug on his hand. He looked down to see Fuuta's innocent eyes.

"Tsuna-nii? Are we going to go home?"

Tsuna forced a small smile as he let go of Fuuta.

"I'm sorry, do you think you could go home by yourself? I need...I need some time alone."

Fuuta looked up at him worriedly as he complied. Tsuna watched until they disappeared. Then he turned around and walked in the opposite direction. He passed by familiar stores and houses before stopping in front of one of them, reading the nameplate even though he didn't really need to.

_Sawada Household._

He took a deep breath as he knocked on the door. _I need to talk to Reborn._

_I want to know everything._

* * *

><p><strong>Hey! Sorry, this is really late. I actually wanted to get it out at 12:00 last night! :'( Oh well. Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you wonderful readers! I'm so happy I got over 200 favorites!<strong>

**Please review!**


	14. The Truth

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Tsuna felt like a stranger in his own house when he was let in by Nana.<p>

_It's been a long time,_ he mused as he looked around the hallway. Everything looked the same as it had been the last time he had been there. There was just one thing missing.

"Where's Ietsugu?"

Nana turned to look at him from where she was making tea in the kitchen.

"Ie-kun is in his room, doing his homework. Ie-kun is such a good boy!"

Tsuna turned away from his mother, giving a curt "thanks" as he headed towards Ietsugu's room. When he reached the room, he twisted the knob and opened the door without hesitation. His gaze immediately rested on the child standing on the table in front of Ietsugu. He was about to open his mouth when Ietsugu beat him to it.

"Get out."

Tsuna's gaze moved to Ietsugu. He shrunk back when he saw the barely hidden anger on his face.

"I told you not to come into my room, didn't I?"

Tsuna resisted the urge to tilt his head to the side. _Did he?__ Maybe he did say something like that when we were younger..._

"I don't want to see your pathetic face right now, Dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna gulped as he prepared himself to do something he had never thought he would do.

"I n-need to talk to R-Reborn."

A bit of surprise appeared in Ietsugu's face, before it was quickly overcome by a boiling anger.

"Did you just...talk back to me?"

Tsuna paled as he shook in his spot, still stunned at the fact that he had actually _defied Ietsugu_. When Tsuna didn't answer, Ietsugu stood up from the table.

"Did you just defy my authority?"

Tsuna shrunk back as much as possible as he watched Ietsugu advance upon him threateningly. He squeezed his eyes shut and ducked his head down, instinctively wrapping his hands over his head to protect it. His head shot up when he heard the sound of an impact and didn't feel anything. His eyes widened. Ietsugu, who had been standing in front of him, a fist held up threateningly, was now lying face down on the floor. Tsuna stared as Ietsugu got up to glare at the child that Tsuna had forgotten about.

"Continue doing your homework."

Ietsugu had just opened his mouth to refuse when Reborn kicked him down again and whispered something into his ear. Ietsugu reluctantly went back to the table and sat down, picking up his pencil again. Tsuna stared at the child, who jumped up onto his head.

"Let's go to your room."

* * *

><p>When Reborn had heard footsteps coming up the stairs, he had been expecting Nana to come in with a tray of tea.<p>

He had _not_ been expecting Tsuna.

_Why is he here?_ He shook his head and turned back to the homework that Ietsugu had been working on. _He just probably wants to talk to Baka-Ie about something. When he leaves, I'll have all the time in the world to torture Ietsugu._ Reborn's eyes shined with a sadistic gleam as he looked over the answers that Ietsugu had filled out already. He almost pouted when he saw that there weren't any wrong answers. _Oh well. I'll just make up something to punish him for. 'Cause I'm the world's greatest hit man!_ He didn't really care if his reasoning didn't make any sense.

He turned to the twins when he heard his name in their little conversation.

"I n-need to talk to R-Reborn."

_What? Why?_

"Did you just...talk back to me?"

_Obviously. That's kind of how a conversation works._

"Did you just defy my authority?"

_Wow, this kid has a serious superiority complex. Authority? What authority? In this room, _I_ carry all the authority._

When he saw his student advance upon his younger twin threateningly, Reborn jumped up and kicked him in the head before returning to a random spot on the table as his mind flashed back to the horrible condition Tsuna had been in after his stupid student had beat him up. _If you think I'm going to let you do that again, you are seriously misguided._

"Continue doing your homework."

Even mafia bosses would do what he wanted without questioning his judgement when he used that tone. But Ietsugu was either an idiot, or just seriously thought he was on the top of the world. _I'm leaning towards the latter,_ Reborn thought as Ietsugu opened his mouth to refuse. He kicked him onto the floor again and hissed into his ear before he could even think of trying to defy him.

"If you defy me again, you will find a bullet between your eyes."

With that, Ietsugu clenched his teeth and forcefully calmed himself down. As he returned to the table, Reborn nodded once in satisfaction before turning to the shivering Tsuna and jumping onto his head. _His hair is much softer than it looks..._

"Let's go to your room."

When they were properly seated and Nana had brought up the tea she had been making, Reborn waited for Tsuna to start talking. He watched as Tsuna fidgeted awkwardly across from him, not knowing how to start. He had been about to prompt him when he closed his eyes and blurted out a single sentence that had Reborn freezing in his spot.

"Please tell me about the Vongola and the mafia and what exactly Ietsugu is being trained to do."

There was a few seconds of stunned silence before Reborn opened his mouth.

"...Where did you hear about this?"

Tsuna coughed awkwardly and answered.

"From Dino-san."

Reborn clenched his fists and opened them again, repressing his killing intent. _That idiot's going to wish he were dead when I'm finished with him._ He turned back to the matter at hand. _I'll need to punish him later._

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes," Tsuna answered without hesitation.

"If I tell you, you will never be able to return to a normal life again."

Tsuna smiled bitterly.

"I don't care. It's already too late for me now, anyway."

Reborn set his cup down.

"What do you want to know?"

He was almost taken aback by the calm resolve that shone in Tsuna's eyes.

"Everything."

Reborn closed his eyes briefly and opened them again.

"It's going to be a long story."

"I don't care. I want to know everything."

Reborn almost smiled. _I wish he had been chosen as the boss instead._

Then he talked.

He explained how Vongola had been started hundreds of years ago and had originally been a vigilante group. He explained how the first boss had moved to Japan for unknown reasons, leaving the Vongola to be led by his chosen successor. He explained how Vongola had turned into a mafia family after the second boss had come into power. He explained how he had been sent to Japan to train Sawada Ietsugu as the Vongola Decimo by orders from the Ninth as per Sawada Iemitsu's recommendation. He explained that there were things called "Dying Will Flames", and there were seven types: Sky, Storm, Rain, Lightning, Sun, Mist, and Cloud. There were people called "Guardians", and they were the people closest to the boss, protecting him or her with their lives. The guardians were mafioso, each having a different flame type. The boss was always the one with the sky flame.

During the whole thing, Tsuna just sat and stared at Reborn, his gaze never wavering.

Reborn smiled internally as he talked. _He would make a great boss._

When Reborn was finished, there was a silence as Tsuna absorbed all the information. Reborn waited patiently for the questions he knew were about to come.

"Why didn't dad tell us?"

Reborn had to resist the urge to sigh. _Of all the questions he could ask, he had to go and ask the most difficult one._

"Your father...He thought it was for the best."

Tsuna stood up in anger.

"Doing this only hurt us! He hurt mom! He hurt every single one of us, but he hurt mom the most. She used to cry herself to sleep, and I know she still cries sometimes even now! He's almost never here, and we don't know why. I would think he was dead if it weren't for the fact that he sends postcards once in a while! And he tells us that he's a construction worker, which is obviously a lie, because his last postcard had a picture of him with _penguins_! And—"

"He's an idiot."

Tsuna's mouth closed when Reborn interrupted him.

"...What?"

"Don't make me repeat myself. Iemitsu is a world-class idiot. He doesn't know anything. You'll just have to sort things out with him whenever he comes back. But if it makes you feel any better, he thought he was protecting his family."

Tsuna sat back down and scooted closer to the table as his anger slowly ebbed away.

"Has G-Gokudera-kun k-killed people?"

Reborn nodded.

"He's been killing people since he was eight."

He sighed when he saw Tsuna's worried face, and he could practically hear the thoughts that were running through his head.

"He had to in order to survive. He was born the son of a mafia boss, and in the underworld, it's kill or be killed."

Tsuna seemed to relax a bit after that, but he tensed up again when he asked the next question.

"Has...has Lambo also killed people?"

"I...don't know."

Tsuna tilted his head.

"What?"

"He came of his own accord. I don't know if he killed anyone yet. Besides, he's from the Bovino Family. I don't pay attention to small fry."

"That't kind of mean..."

"It's true. But you're just going to have to ask him yourself whether he killed people or not."

Tsuna nodded. _I guess I'll need to ask I-Pin and maybe Fuuta, too..._

"You said something a long time ago about being the 'world's greatest hit man'..."

Reborn nodded.

"It's true. Everyone in the mafia knows my name and reputation as the strongest hit man. No one has or can beat me."

Tsuna stayed silent as he processed this information.

"Why were_ you_ sent to train Ietsugu?"

"The ninth boss of Vongola trusts me enough, and I also trained someone before, who is now the boss of one of the most influential families in the mafia world."

"Dino-san, right? He referred to you really familiarly, so I thought maybe you guys knew each other."

"Yes, I taught Dino. He is now the boss of the Cavallone Family, one of Vongola's allies." _But I don't think they'll be allies if Ietsugu takes the mantle..._

Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, bracing himself for the answer to his next, and final, question.

"Why...Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"I didn't tell you because Iemitsu insisted on keeping his 'cute little tuna-fish and wonderful wife' oblivious to the mafia. Gokudera and the others...You'll have to ask them."

Tsuna bit his bottom lip. _I'm not sure if I can do that... But I'll just need to try anyway._

"I...see. Thank you."

Reborn made his way out the door.

"If that's all, I'll be going back to tortu—_tutoring_ Baka-Ie."

Tsuna sweat-dropped and followed Reborn out of the room. _I think he almost said "torturing"..._ He split up with Reborn in the hallway, making his way down the stairs to the front door.

No one said anything when he left.

* * *

><p>Tsuna stared at the stars as he walked to Hibari's house, going over what he had learned.<p>

_How should I act around them? If Gokudera-kun, Lambo, I-Pin, and Fuuta are in the mafia, then they are probably really dangerous... It would probably be safer if I stayed away from them._

He entered the house, well aware that it was past dinner time.

"Tsunayoshi."

He turned his head to see Hibari leaning against a wall with his arms crossed.

"Where were you?" Hibari asked as he stood up straight and made his way towards Tsuna, who backed away slowly until his back hit a wall.

Tsuna averted his eyes nervously and looked down.

"I...I was just visiting mom! Hehe..."

He flinched when a hand slammed into the wall behind him. Thankfully, it didn't break.

"Don't lie to me." Hibari hissed, his eyes flashing with anger.

"W-well..."

Hibari sighed inaudibly.

"Tell me."

Tsuna was having a mini war in his head. _Should I tell him? No, that wouldn't be a good idea. But he might be really helpful in the future because he's strong! But what if he gets hurt? Wait, no, he can't get hurt. He's the strongest man in Namimori! But..._

"Please."

The word was quiet, almost a whisper, but Tsuna heard it. He looked up and saw the pain in Hibari's eyes that he was struggling to hide, and suddenly, the war in his head had ended.

The next thing he knew, they were seated across from each other with a steaming cup of tea in their hands, and Tsuna was telling him everything from his heritage to the "Dying Will Flames".

It was almost midnight when he had finished explaining. He looked at Hibari nervously as they sat in silence. _What's he going to say? Please don't hate me now. Please, please, please, please, please..._

"What are you going to do?"

Tsuna's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"...You don't care?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"What am I supposed to care about?"

"...That my brother is being trained to lead a group of people who do illegal things, and I may or may not have become acquainted with mafioso?"

"That doesn't matter."

Tsuna's hands fell to his lap.

"It doesn't?"

Hibari shook his head as he stood up and moved next to Tsuna.

"What matters is how you are going to use this information."

Tsuna looked down at his hands and twisted them anxiously.

"I...I don't know!"

He looked up to Hibari, his eyes filled with fear.

"I don't know what to do! Gokudera-kun has killed people before, and Lambo and I-Pin and Fuuta might have also killed people! I don't want to drag Yamamoto into this either! And...what if something bad happens? Ietsugu is being trained to take over a mafia family! What if assassins or something come to kill him and we get caught up? I don't...I don't want anyone to get hurt! I don't want Ietsugu to get killed. I don't care that he's made my life hell for the past three years, he's still my brother and I don't want anyone in my family to die! I...I don't know what to do anymore!"

His eyes shined with unshed tears. The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by strong arms as they wrapped around him.

"It's okay."

Those words opened up the dam that had been keeping his tears in, and soon, he was clutching Hibari's shirt as he sobbed out all of his frustration and sadness and anger into Hibari's chest.

Hibari didn't really know what he was dong. He had hugged Tsuna because he knew that Tsuna needed come comfort, but now he didn't really know what to do. He awkwardly rubbed circles on Tsuna's back, remembering that Tsuna had managed to make that cow-child stop crying by doing that.

Tsuna didn't know how long they had been sitting there, but soon he pulled away and rubbed his red-rimmed eyes.

"Thank you," he said, sniffing.

"Hn."

Tsuna stopped rubbing the tears away, and his eyes widened.

"I'm so sorry! I got tears all over your shirt! I'll clean it for you—"

Hibari shook his head slowly.

"Go to bed."

"But—"

"Sleep."

Hibari's tone brooked no arguments. Tsuna nodded and shuffled his way to his bedroom. Hibari watched Tsuna go, before getting up and walking to his bedroom, shutting the door quietly. Tsuna dressed into his pajamas quietly and hesitated when he saw the children curled up on his bed. _Is it safe...?_ He froze when he heard a small groan. On the bed, Fuuta opened his eyes blearily.

"...Tsuna-nii...?"

This woke up the other kids who were curled up next to Fuuta.

"...Mamma?"

Tsuna felt like crying again. _How could I have ever thought that they were dangerous?_

"Yes, it's me."

He smiled softly as he quietly made his way to the bed. _If they killed people, then it was for their survival._

"I'm home!"

He crawled into the bed, and they switched positions; now Fuuta and I-Pin were on one side, with Lambo on the other. _It's _because_ they killed or hurt people that they are still alive now._

"Welcome home!"

Lambo and I-Pin hugged his waist, and he reveled in the warmth. _But they're safe now._

"Good night, Lambo, I-Pin, Fuuta."

_They won't have to hurt anyone anymore._

"Good night, mamma/Tsuna-nii."

_I'll protect them._

* * *

><p><strong>...Oops. Well, this is <em>my<em> fic, therefore I can make Hibari as OOC as I want. So there. **

**Thank you all for the favorites, follows, and reviews! I have over 100 reviews now! **

**Also, winter break ends in two days, so I won't be able to update as frequently. My updates will probably go back to being erratic. Teehee!**


	15. The Unexpected

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>Dino had <em>not <em>expected to see his ex-tutor standing on his bed when he walked into his hotel room.

He took one step into his room and blinked when he saw onyx eyes staring at him. He took a step back and closed the door calmly, before proceeding to freak out. _What the heck is Reborn doing here?! Is he going to kill me? But I didn't do anything! Right?! Wait, how did he even get in the room in the first place?! He would have had to go through all of my bodyguards, and then he would have had to somehow get my room number from the__—you know what? He's the world's greatest hit man. It would be sad if he couldn't even do that._

After his panic attack that lasted for about a minute, Dino straightened up his clothes and opened the door again. He was not surprised to see his former tutor standing in the same exact place. He raised a hand hesitantly.

"...Hi?"

His answer was a kick to the face.

_I knew it_, Dino thought as he rubbed his aching nose and stood up from where he had fallen. He kept a wary eye on Reborn as he moved further into his room and closed the door. He walked forward slowly and sat down next to his ex-tutor on the bed carefully. He sat there awkwardly, Reborn staring at him with an unreadable look. He fidgeted a bit before opening his mouth hesitantly.

"...So—"

"What do you think of Tsuna?"

Dino was cut off by an abrupt question from Reborn. _...What?_ He stared at the baby, who kicked him in the face again. After Dino got up and took his seat on the bed again, Reborn asked the question again.

"What do you think of Tsuna?"

_How does he know that I met Tsuna? Why is he asking me this?_ Dino had about a thousand question swimming in his head, but he decided not to ask any of them when he saw Reborn ready himself for another kick.

"He's kind."

Dino relaxed minutely when Reborn relaxed.

"And?"

Dino stared at the ceiling as he remembered his encounter with the brunet the previous day.

"He's patient, selfless, forgiving, and honest. He's basically the exact opposite of Sawada Ietsugu."

He almost had a heart attack when he heard his ex-tutor actually _sigh_. Out loud.

"I know."

Dino had to look at his former teacher again when he heard Reborn's annoyed tone. He started to sweat when he saw the child glaring darkly at a gun that he had somehow managed to procure out of thin air. _I feel kind of sorry for Tsuna's brother..._ Then he remembered the dark fury and the manipulative words of Ietsugu, and he shook his head mentally. _No. He deserves it._

"Sawada Tsunayoshi has sky flames."

Dino almost fell off the bed without being kicked.

"WHAT?!"

Reborn began to clean his gun, not looking at Dino.

"Smokin' Bomb was surrounded by his own dynamite and would have died, had it not been for Tsuna."

_Why did he just change the subject?!_

"When Tsuna rushed in to save Smokin' Bomb, he ran at a speed that should not have been possible for a student who is dead last in terms of speed, strength, and stamina."

Dino stared at Reborn with wide eyes as he began to see where the story was going.

"Sky flames were surrounding his legs."

Everything was quiet as Reborn set down his gun.

"They were propelling him forward."

_But how did he manage to materialize his flames without the bullet or any other prior training?_

"They most likely materialized because of his wish to save Smokin' Bomb."

Dino, who was already used to Reborn's skill at 'reading people's minds', sat quietly in disbelief.

"His will to save a complete stranger was what enabled him to call upon his flames."

Dino was forced to rethink his opinion of Sawada Tsunayoshi. _He's not _just _selfless...I think he's _too _selfless.__ But..._

"Wouldn't that make him a better choice as the Vongola Decimo?"

There was a pause, and Dino tried frantically to explain himself.

"I-it's not like I'm doubting the Ninth! It's just...Tsuna could easily be trained to raise his physical capabilities, and it should be easy enough to teach him that there are times when he _needs _to fight, and—"

Dino was almost taken aback by the almost _sad_ smile he saw on Reborn's face when the child finally looked up.

"He really would be."

They sat in silence until Reborn picked up his newly cleaned gun again.

"By the way, Dino."

Reborn was answered with a small questioning hum.

"Did you really think you would get off easy for telling a civilian about the mafia?"

Dino turned his head slowly and looked down at his former tutor.

"...Maybe?"

Five minutes later, he was running around Namimori avoiding bullets.

"Come on! Faster!"

Dino cried comical tears as he pushed his legs to go faster. He didn't even have to turn his head to see the cruel smile on Reborn's face as he shot at Dino. He could hear the sadistic joy in Reborn's voice as he yelled at him to go faster.

_Goddammit!_

* * *

><p>Tsuna was surprised when he saw that his brother wasn't at school.<p>

He was staring out the window like usual, not really paying attention to what was going on in the class. He barely noticed as the teacher began roll call and stopped on Ietsugu's name.

"Sawada Ietsugu!"

The class fell silent as everyone looked towards the seat that Ietsugu sat in. The teacher pushed up his glasses and called out the name again.

"Sawada Ietsugu!"

Everything dissolved into chaos.

"WHERE IS IETSUGU-SAMA?!"

"Is Ietsugu sick or something?!"

"Maybe he overslept?"

"Ietsugu never oversleeps!"

"That's right! Ietsugu-sama is too perfect to do anything like that!"

Tsuna barely registered the yelling and only turned his head when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Dame-Tsuna! Where's Ietsugu?"

Tsuna paled as he stared at the eager faces of his classmates.

"Umm...I—I don't—"

"Hey, why don't we all just calm down? You're all scaring Tsuna!"

The class turned their heads to see the carefree face of Yamamoto Takeshi.

"Why should we?"

"Yeah! He's just Dame-Tsuna!"

"No one cares if he's scared!"

They all fell silent as the bright smile on his face suddenly turned ice-cold.

"I care. So if you could all back off and ask Tsuna nicely, I would be grateful."

Everyone's faces paled as they backed away. Tsuna looked up at Yamamoto, shocked. _I...I didn't know a smile could be so...cold._

"Are you okay, Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked quietly.

Tsuna's shocked face melted into a warm smile.

"Yes. Thank you."

Yamamoto smiled back just as warmly.

"Sure! That's what friends are for, right?"

Then he turned back to his seat and sat down, keeping a close eye on the classmates. Finally, one of them slowly walked up to Tsuna's desk.

"Dame—"

He was shut up by a slam on a desk, and he turned around to meet the heated glare of Gokudera Hayato.

"Tsuna-sama is not 'dame'," he hissed out.

The student nodded in fear and turned around slowly, his face pale.

"Ts-Tsuna," he began, relaxing when nothing happened. "Do you know where Ietsugu is?"

Tsuna blinked at the attention he was receiving. Even the teacher was staring at him expectantly!

"I—I don't know what happened to Ietsugu."

In a flash, another student was standing beside Tsuna's desk.

"How do you _not _know?! You live in the same house as him!"

There was another bang, and the student turned to see Gokudera glaring at him.

"Do _not_ yell at Tsuna-sama."

The student nodded furiously and turned back around. Tsuna was just staring at his friends in confusion. _I wonder why they're so mad...?_

"Tsuna, is there a reason as to why you do not know your brother's whereabouts?"

Tsuna had to run the sentence through his head five times, a bit taken aback by the sudden change in speech.

"W-well..."

Everyone in the class jumped when the door slammed open. Ietsugu came strolling in, his uniform perfect. He looked the same as he always did.

"Ietsugu! You're here!"

"Why was Ietsugu-sama so late?"

Tsuna watched as Ietsugu calmed down the whole class with a single sentence.

"Please excuse my lateness; my mother accidentally made me breakfast that had a rotten vegetable in it, so I was a bit...preoccupied."

The teacher nodded, accepting the excuse as he finished up calling the attendance. The students dispersed and went back to their respective seats when they realized that Ietsugu had simply been held up by a mild case of food poisoning. Tsuna went back to staring out the window, no longer paying any attention to the class. He stared at the sky, not looking down.

Which was why he missed the flash of light pink as a shadow turned away and ran from the school gates.

* * *

><p>Dino found himself in front of a huge, old-fashioned Japanese mansion.<p>

He had been too busy running away from Reborn to look where he was going, and now he was completely lost. _Where am I? _He looked around, hoping for a sign or something that would indicate his current location._ How am I supposed to get back?!_

"Huh? Dino-san?"

Dino turned to look at the speaker and almost collapsed with relief.

"Tsuna! I'm so glad to see you! Do you happen to know how to get back to Teiko Hotel?"

Tsuna nodded slowly, still surprised to see the blond foreigner in front of his current abode. Dino just about cried.

"Oh, thank god! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get back and that I would have to sleep on a park bench or something!"

Tsuna stared at him in confusion.

"...Couldn't you have just called one of your subordinates?"

He watched as Dino's eyes suddenly shone with the realization.

"Right! Why didn't I think of that before?!"

Tsuna merely shook his head. _I don't think I should be surprised anymore..._ He walked past Dino and stepped into the mansion, taking his shoes off. He turned to Dino.

"Would you like to stay for dinner? It's kind of late already."

Dino looked at the dimming sky. _Wow, it's already that late?_ He nodded to Tsuna.

"Thank you!"

Tsuna honestly did not know that a single person could make such a huge mess.

Sure, he was clumsy, but Hibari had made sure that Tsuna lost most of that clumsiness five years ago. Now, he rarely tripped over thin air, though he tripped over plenty of other things. He sighed as he cleaned up the broken pieces of yet another vase. _Dino-san has broken more things in half an hour that the kids have broken in their entire stay here. _Dino was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"...Sorry for breaking another vase."

"Just sit down in the living room and try not to break anything there, please," Tsuna said without turning around. He heard the creak of the floorboards as Dino moved to (hopefully) do what he had said. Thankfully, Tsuna did not hear another crash.

When Hibari came home, the first thing he did was attack the blond.

Tsuna closed his eyes briefly in exasperation, and, without turning, yelled at Hibari from where he was finishing up making their dinner.

"Kyoya! He's not dangerous! I invited him for dinner; he'll leave as soon as he's done!"

When he heard some crashes, he yelled again.

"If you break something, I am not making hamburger steak for a month!"

The noises stopped almost immediately. Tsuna sighed in relief and set table, calling everyone over. The children came running in immediately from where they had gone to play after greeting Tsuna. Dino came in carefully, taking slow, measured steps as he mumbled under his breath. Tsuna could barely hear the "left, right, left, right..." commands that Dino was muttering. Hibari came in at a more relaxed pace, taking his seat gracefully. When everyone had taken their seats, Tsuna smiled and slapped his hands together.

"Let's eat!"

After an hour of eating (with Dino dropping most of his food), Tsuna stood up to take the dishes to the sink. The kids ran off to play again, not wanting to bother him, and Hibari just disappeared to do his nightly rounds around Namimori.

"I'll help!"

Tsuna turned around to see Dino's eager face.

"No, it's okay! Please go back to the living room, and I'll give you the directions as soon as I'm done."

Dino got up from his seat and made his way over to the sink with his plate.

"I insist! I'll—"

He was cut off when he tripped over one of the chairs. His plate flew into the air, and they both watched as it seemed to fall in slow motion. It shattered into little pieces when it hit the floor. Tsuna stared at the little pieces on the floor, his bangs shadowing his eyes.

"...Oops?"

Dino almost peed in his pants when Tsuna lifted his head up and revealed his eyes.

"'Oops'?! You break almost everything that _can _be broken in this house, and you say 'oops'?"

Dino moved backwards slowly as Tsuna moved forward.

"I tried to be patient. I really did! But you, having been here for all of maybe two hours, have broken more things than the children have broken in their entire stay here."

Dino made a break for the door, Tsuna following him.

"If you break _one more thing _in this house, I will castrate you!"

Dino honestly didn't know that Tsuna could be so scary. Especially when he was wearing a frilly apron and practically exuded the 'harmless housewife' vibe. He opened the door as fast as he could and ran down the street, not even caring where he was going anymore.

Dino honestly didn't think anyone could be as scary as Reborn, but this boy was giving the hit man a run for his money.

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for the reviews, favorites, andor follows!**

**Next chapter is on Bianchi, and then it's on to the Kokuyo arc! (Sort of).**

**Please review!**


	16. Poison Scorpion

**Warning: **There might be some OOC-ness.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal talk

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>When Bianchi heard that her lover, Reborn, was in Japan, she couldn't believe it.<p>

Her lover, the world's greatest hit man, was tutoring the future Vongola Decimo—a civilian, from what she had heard—and was currently in some town called "Namimori". It was simply unacceptable! Someone as great as him—_so strong, so wonderful_—shouldn't be off wasting his time in a no-name town with a _civilian._ He could be doing better things, greater things—like assassinating various people, going on a killing spree... She needed to bring him back so he could do what he was being _paid _to do: kill. She wanted to see him in action again; his fluid movements, his graceful body... It was the whole reason she had fallen in love with him. So she booked a flight to the no-name town and made it her goal to bring him back.

But that wasn't the whole reason she went to Namimori.

She had heard that her brother was in Japan too.

No matter how much she tried to deny it, she knew. It wasn't because of Reborn. It wasn't because of some half-assed reason like "I want to bring Reborn back just because".

She was in this small, inconspicuous little town because of her little brother; the one she hadn't seen in five years.

_I wonder how he's doing,_ she thought as she pedaled down the road. She paused along the way to throw a poisoned can of soda at the future Decimo, who caught it perfectly and stared at it suspiciously. He dropped it into a garbage can and continued on his way, not noticing the pigeons that fell from the top of a pole, dead before they hit the ground.

But she didn't really care.

_I wonder where he is..._ Her eyes widened, and she braked suddenly when she saw a trio of males walking in front of her. She could just barely hear their voices.

"...talk to Tsuna-sama so informally, you baseball idiot!"

"Hahaha! But we're friends! You should be less formal!"

"Shut up! Die!"

"Gokudera-kun, please calm down..."

"I'm sorry, Tsuna-sama!"

"Hahaha!"

"Take your arm off of Tsuna-sama!"

Bianchi smiled sadly as she watched the trio get farther and farther away. _He looks happy._ The last time she had seen him, he had glared at her with so much hatred...

When she had seen him for the first time after he had run away, it had been on a job. Their client had hired the both of them without them knowing. When she first saw her brother, she was happy to see that he was alive. After all, he had run away without a word, so she had thought he was dead. However, when she saw him fight, her happiness quickly turned into despair.

She watched as he killed people without a second thought.

_What happened?_

She watched as his expression never changed, his scowl never leaving his face even as blood stained his face and clothes.

_What happened to his expressive face?_

She watched as he took the reward without a single smile.

_What happened to his smiles?_

But she already knew.

_He no longer knows _how _to smile._

And she cried. She cried her heart out that night, not letting anyone see her. After all, it would be very unbefitting for the "Poison Scorpion" to cry in front of anyone. The next day, she continued killing as if nothing had happened.

She made sure to never take a job with her brother again.

She didn't want to see his face void of all emotion except for anger; pure, unadulterated anger. Every time she thought of her brother, she would only see his face covered in blood. She no longer remembered what his smiles looked like. She no longer remembered what his laughs—_his laughs, the ones that always brightened up her day__—_sounded like.

She never wanted to see him again.

It had hurt when she was a child; to see him always look so depressed because of their parents. She knew it was her fault. She was drawing all of their attention away from them. But that was because she didn't want her mother scorning him every minute of every day. She didn't want their father glaring at him all the time, either. After all, that would probably hurt her brother more, wouldn't it?

She didn't care that she hurt more than him whenever she saw his dejected face.

And then he had run away. She had been filled with conflicting emotions—she was scared that he would die, she was happy that he was finally free from his chains, and she was sad. She was sad that she wouldn't be able to see his face as much; she was sad that she wouldn't be able to see the few smiles that he gave to an even fewer amount of people. So when she saw him again on a job, she was happy to see him again. It had been hard for her to turn and not see him smiling at a maid like he always used to. It had hurt when she went to his favorite places in the mansion only to not see him there.

But it hurt even more to see his guarded face; she could tell that he had lost all faith in humanity, and that he would never trust anyone again.

And then she heard that he had been sent to Namimori to test the future Vongola Decimo and _maybe__—_just_ maybe—_become one of his Guardians. She had hoped that he would be accepted as a Guardian. She had hoped that he would learn how to smile again; learn how to laugh, _how to trust_...

When she arrived at Namimori, the first thing she had done was find the house of the future Vongola Decimo—Sawada Ietsugu. It wasn't really that hard. Really, for someone who seemed to treasure his 'precious family' so much, Sawada Iemitsu didn't guard his family's information very well. It took all of ten minutes to find _who_ the Vongola Decimo would be (_and _seriously_, shouldn't he try to guard that little piece of information a _little_ more?)._ It took even less time to find out _where_ the Vongola Decimo lived (along with his wife and other child)—and seriously, one would think he would that guard that piece of information even _more_, but all it took was Bianchi's—very—limited hacking skills, and she found it.

(It was really pitiful, for the leader of CEDEF to have such a horrible security on his laptop.)

So she went off to Namimori, and the first person she met was Reborn. The first thing she did—after fawning over him, of course—was to ask about her brother's—possible—Guardianship.

She would never forget his face.

His facial expression had barely changed, of course, but he had somehow managed to darken his expression. _Sawada Ietsugu__ left him to die,_ he had said. _And then his twin ran in and saved Smokin' Bomb from blowing up, getting heavily injured in the process._ In that moment, Bianchi had developed a deep, festering hate for this..._Ietsugu._

_I will kill him._

But first things first, she had to see how her brother was doing.

* * *

><p>It was already close to night time, so she went to the nearest hotel and paid for a room.<p>

The next morning, she had woken up, ready to—hopefully—kill the stupid bastard who let her brother almost die. She got dressed and got on her bicycle, preparing a poisoned can of soda. According to her easily acquired information, Sawada Ietsugu went to Namimori Middle School. _Hayato goes there too,_ she thought as she pedaled along the road that Sawada Ietsugu would take. Her thoughts turned to her brother, almost completely forgetting about the damn bastard. Of course, when she did see the damn bastard, she made sure to give him the can of soda that would hopefully end his life and rid the world of one more unneeded person.

Then she continued on, hoping—for what, she didn't know.

And when she saw her brother, she knew what she had been hoping for. His expressive face, his almost _carefree _expression...It was almost like she was seeing him before he had run away. Before he had become a freelance hit man. Before he had become so jaded.

And she knew it was because of the small brunet walking next to him.

At first glance, he seemed ordinary. Albeit, he was a bit on the short side, and his hair was simply _monstrous_, but a normal teenager nonetheless. However, he seemed to have gained Hayato's loyalty and trust somehow—the trust that she had been sure was long gone, and the loyalty that she thought would never be given to anyone. _Hayato trusts this teen, and he is completely loyal to him. 'Tsuna-sama' huh..._

_He'd better not be taking advantage of Hayato's loyalty. _If he was, then he would mysteriously die a horrible death. _I need to see their relationship up close..._

After deciding that she needed to test their bond, she went off to make Sawada Ietsugu's life a lot more difficult than it already is.

After all, it was more entertaining to torture your victim before killing them.

* * *

><p>Bianchi had been stalking her brother's friend.<p>

She made sure to attack the older twin whenever she saw him, but most of her time was spent observing the brunet. She had matched his appearance to the picture on one of the files she had stolen from Sawada Iemitsu's computer—_she _knew_ he looked really familiar__—_and continued observing him with the knowledge that he was the twin who had allegedly saved Hayato from being blown up.

That gave him a few points, but it still wasn't enough to convince her that he cared about Hayato almost as much as Hayato cared about Sawada Tsunayoshi.

After all, being related to some conniving bastard must have made him at least a tad bit manipulative, right? Being raised with Sawada Ietsugu had to have done _something _to his brain.

Apparently it didn't.

He was hopeless at school; the complete opposite of his twin. He was ridiculed for getting low grades, unlike his brother, who people praised for his high grades. Bianchi also noted the older twin's hatred for his brother. Whenever the class laughed at Sawada Tsunayoshi (and were shut up by her brother and the 'baseball idiot'), he would be laughing at him too. He also seemed determined to make his brother's life hell.

But that didn't mean anything to her.

So she continued watching him interact with Hayato and that 'Baseball Idiot' person, waiting for something to happen so that she could test him. If she didn't deem him worthy, then she would be taking her brother away no matter how much he protested. Sawada Tsunayoshi would also die of food poisoning soon after.

The opportunity to test him came sooner than she had hoped.

* * *

><p>Tsuna knew something was going on when he couldn't find Fuuta anywhere.<p>

He had waited in the house anxiously, hoping that Fuuta had just gone somewhere and was coming back soon, but he hadn't come back yet, and it was already midnight. He bit at his nails as he paced in front of the door, debating whether to go out to search or not. After a few moments of hesitation, he grabbed his jacket and slipped on his shoes. _Kyoya and the kids should be sleeping by now...They'll be fine without me._ Just as he reached for the doorknob, he was stopped by a voice behind him.

"Where are you going?"

Tsuna turned around nervously and looked into silvery-gray eyes.

"I-I just thought I should go look for—"

He was cut off by Hibari reaching for his own jacket.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Going with you."

Tsuna opened his mouth to argue—_it's okay, I'll be fine__—_and then closed his mouth without saying anything. _It's not like anything I say will stop him from coming, anyway..._ Without another word, he opened the door and stepped out with Hibari, closing the door behind him.

After hours of fruitless searching, Hibari and Tsuna went home. Tsuna had wanted to continue searching, but Hibari was adamant about him getting his sleep, so Tsuna reluctantly returned to the Japanese style mansion. He had about three hours to sleep, but most of it was spent worrying about Fuuta. When he finally did sleep, it had only been for about an hour and a half before he had to get up again to cook and clean up. As a result, he had bags under his eyes and walked to school with Gokudera and Yamamoto sluggishly. They looked at him worriedly as he dragged his feet.

"Are you okay, Tsuna?"

Tsuna looked up at Yamamoto and smiled tiredly.

"I'm fine."

Gokudera stopped walking and grabbed Tsuna's arm, turning him around to face him.

"Tsuna-sama, it doesn't look like you're 'fine'. You look like you barely slept."

Tsuna looked down and fidgeted awkwardly under Yamamoto and Gokudera's intense stares.

"What happened, Tsuna?"

Tsuna glanced up at the worried faces of his friends and looked down again.

"Fuuta went missing yesterday."

Gokudera and Yamamoto glanced at each other before looking back at him. This time, it was Gokudera who spoke.

"And?"

Tsuna looked up at them worriedly.

"I went out last night to look for him, but I couldn't find him anywhere! Even Kyoya couldn't find him!"

Yamamoto smiled reassuringly.

"We'll help you look for him later, okay? I'm sure we'll find him! He can't have gotten far!"

Tsuna looked down before looking up again, a small smile on his face.

"I guess...you're right. Thank you!"

Gokudera smiled a little before turning to Yamamoto angrily.

"I've told you this so many times! Don't talk to Tsuna-sama so informally, you baseball idiot!"

Just like that, all the seriousness disappeared.

"Hahaha! But we're friends! You should be less formal!"

"Shut up! Die!"

Tsuna sweat-dropped.

"Gokudera-kun, please calm down..."

"I'm sorry, Tsuna-sama!"

Yamamoto slung an arm around Tsuna's shoulders as he laughed. Gokudera immediately glared at him again.

"Take your arm off of Tsuna-sama!"

Tsuna smiled softly as he walked in front of the arguing duo. _It's nice, having people who care about me..._

* * *

><p>During second period, Tsuna suddenly got the feeling that he was being watched.<p>

He looked out the window nervously, searching for the person who was watching him. When he couldn't find anyone, he turned back to the class, trying to ignore the prickling feeling on the back of his neck. He looked to his side. _Yamamoto is sleeping, and Gokudera-kun is skipping class again, so it's not_ _them. Then, who is it?_

Tsuna was snapped out of his thoughts when everyone stood up and began leaving the classroom. He straightened up and looked around wide-eyed. _What? Why's everyone leaving?_ He went up to the teacher.

"Excuse me Mr. Nezu, but why is everyone leaving?"

The teacher turned to him with an annoyed look on his face.

"Why weren't you listening to me? Because of all the attacks on the students, school is closed until further notice. Students aren't allowed to walk out alone, either. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home!"

Tsuna bowed in thanks and turned away, leaving the teacher to pack up the rest of his things and leave. When he reached his desk, he packed up his supplies and tapped Yamamoto on the shoulder.

"Yamamoto, wake up."

Yamamoto groaned before rubbing his eyes and stretching. He blinked the sleepiness away from his eyes as he looked at Tsuna.

"What's wrong?"

Tsuna pointed at the bag that Yamamoto hadn't even bothered to unpack before falling asleep.

"School is closed because of the attacks that have been happening. Mr. Nezu said that students aren't allowed to walk out alone either, so let's go find Gokudera-kun. I think we should look for Fuuta, too. It's really dangerous now."

Yamamoto grabbed the bag off of his desk and stood up, swinging the bag over his shoulder as he covered his mouth with his other hand and yawned.

"Okay! Let's go!"

Tsuna turned and led the way to the door as Yamamoto followed behind him, sliding the door closed as they left.

* * *

><p>Tsuna ran the minute he heard explosions.<p>

However, unlike most people, who would be running _away _from the sound, he was running _towards _the sound. _Is that Gokudera-kun? Is he okay? _He ignored the confused cries of his friend as he ran towards the explosion. When he got to the scene, he stopped and stood there panting, his hands on his knees, staring at the scene in front of him incredulously.

_Who...is that? Why is he fighting Gokudera-kun? How is he uninjured? That explosion looked huge!_

Yamamoto stopped beside him, not even breathing heavily, as he gazed at the scene in front of them.

Tsuna watched, his mouth dry, as Gokudera fought against a teen with a bar code on his face. _Gokudera-kun seems to be doing fine so far... But his enemy is fighting on par with him! That must mean he's really strong... _He bit at his thumbnail as he watched the fight nervously. They fought evenly, neither side giving in as they attacked and defended.

Until Gokudera's opponent got a hit in.

Tsuna watched with horror as Gokudera doubled over in pain, clutching his stomach where he had been punched. Before he had a chance to recover, his opponent shot needles out of his yo-yos that pierced his skin. Tsuna's eyes widened as Gokudera collapsed onto the ground, blood pooling underneath him.

"GOKUDERA-KUN!"

Without registering what he was doing, he ran over to the silver-head's side, crouching next to him as he checked over his wounds. _Oh my god...his wounds look really bad! We need to get him to a hospital!_

"Yamamoto! Please help me get Gokudera-kun to a hospital!"

The hazel-eyed teen appeared next to him instantly and tried to lift up the silver-head. Tsuna helped him get Gokudera on his back, and when he was secured, Yamamoto began running towards the hospital.

"Where do you think you are going?"

Tsuna and Yamamoto turned to the teen with the bar code on his face. _He's the one that hurt Gokudera-kun, _Tsuna thought as he stared at him.

"We are going to bring Gokudera-kun to a hospital. Please leave."

The teen pushed up the glasses on his face.

"I can't let you do that. Mukuro-sama told me to—"

"We are bringing Gokudera-kun to a hospital."

Tsuna's bangs shadowed his eyes as he stepped in front of Yamamoto and Gokudera. Yamamoto opened his mouth to stop him, but closed it when Tsuna motioned for him to leave. He looked between the teen on his back and the teen in front of him, and hesitated before leaving.

"Please be careful!"

Tsuna nodded and lifted his head, showing the determination shining in his eyes as he tensed up, preparing to fight.

"I can't let you stop us."

The other teen watched as his opponent was taken away. He stood silently and stared at the small teen in front of him before turning around to leave.

"Troublesome..."

Tsuna watched as the other teen left, not relaxing until he was out of sight. When the teen was gone, he collapsed onto his knees, his fists clenching. _Why didn't I help Gokudera-kun before?_ His face twisted in pain as he remembered watching his friend get pierced with multiple needles. _I could have stopped that somehow. But I didn't._ He smiled humorlessly. _Because I'm a coward._ He looked down as tears began falling out of his eyes. _I should have stepped in sooner. I could have helped Gokudera-kun. _He wiped his eyes as he stood up and grabbed his bag. He began walking in the direction of the hospital, keeping his head down as he clenched his teeth.

_I won't let that happen again._

* * *

><p>When Tsuna got to the hospital, Gokudera had already been treated.<p>

He sat down next to Yamamoto and watched the rise and fall of his friend's chest, listening to the constant beeping of the heart monitor.

"The doctor said that he was poisoned. They managed to find out what poison it was, and they gave him the antidote. Now he just has to heal from all the wounds."

Tsuna nodded, not moving his eyes away from the prone figure on the bed.

"What was that?"

Tsuna forced his eyes away from the hospital bed and looked at Yamamoto inquisitively. He elaborated when he saw the questioning look in Tsuna's eyes.

"Why was Gokudera fighting someone? Is there something going on?"

Tsuna looked down at his hands and squeezed his eyes closed. _That's right...Yamamoto doesn't know about the mafia. I don't want to tell him. But..._ He opened his eyes and looked at Yamamoto's worried face.

"Are you guys doing something dangerous?"

_If I don't tell him, he might be in even more danger than if I did tell him._

"Tsuna, please tell me if there's something wrong."

Tsuna turned his gaze to the sleeping figure on the bed, debating whether he should tell Yamamoto or not.

"I'm your friend, Tsuna. If you're involved in something dangerous, then I want to know."

Tsuna looked towards Yamamoto again.

"You saved my life once."

_I saved his life?_ Tsuna's eyes widened when he remembered talking Yamamoto out of suicide, something that seemed to have happened so long ago.

"So can you please let me save yours?"

Tears began to well up in Tsuna's eyes as he hugged Yamamoto. Yamamoto wrapped his arms around Tsuna and let him cry, not saying anything as they sat in silence.

"Thank you."

Yamamoto looked down at the brunet in surprise when he heard the muffled thanks. His face split into a soft smile when he realized what he was being thanked for.

"You're welcome."

Tsuna pulled away from Yamamoto and rubbed the tears away before looking at him seriously.

"If I tell you, your life will never be the same."

Yamamoto stared back, unmoving.

"I don't care. If you're involved in it, then I want to know. Besides," he said as he turned to Gokudera. "I don't want to stay ignorant anymore. They say 'ignorance is bliss', but...ignorance only hurts."

Tsuna studied the determination in Yamamoto's eyes before swallowing.

"...We are involved in the mafia..."

* * *

><p>Yamamoto Tsuyoshi looked up when he heard the door to Takesushi slide open.<p>

He smiled as he put down the knife he had been holding to slice up pieces of raw salmon. It was already past closing time, so there were no customers anymore.

"Takeshi! Welcome home!"

His son looked at him, his smile a bit strained.

"I'm home."

Tsuyoshi's smile slipped off slightly.

"Is something wrong? Are you okay?"

Takeshi looked down, not answering. Tsuyoshi stared at him worriedly, waiting for an answer.

"Hey, dad?"

"Yes?"

Tsuyoshi knew what was coming when he saw the unwavering resolve in his son's eyes. And when the question finally came, he knew he couldn't say no this time.

"Can you teach me the Shigure Souen Ryuu?"

* * *

><p>When Bianchi saw her brother being attacked while Sawada Tsunayoshi was just watching, she almost snapped and decided to kill him right then and there.<p>

_If he doesn't care enough about Hayato to save him, then he doesn't deserve to live._

But seeing his horrified face, she restrained herself. She watched with gritted teeth as her brother was taken down by some teen in a green uniform. _Dammit...I want to help him! But..._ She glared at the brunet as he ran over to the still body.

_If he cared, then he would have been the one to jump in and save Hayato._

She watched as Yamamoto picked up Gokudera and ran to the hospital, as per Tsuna's request.

_At least he knows his priorities._

She watched as Tsuna stood in front of the other teen.

_What is he doing?_

She looked at the determination in his eyes. The determination to stop the other teen. The determination to let his friend get to the hospital quickly.

_The determination to protect his friends._

She let out a short laugh as she looked down.

_What am I thinking? He really does care about Hayato. I've known since I first saw them._

She looked up and watched as the other teen walked away, leaving the brunet alone.

_Hayato chose well. If it's him, Hayato will be fine._

She watched as he slid down to the ground and cried.

_Good. Regret your cowardly actions. Learn from this experience..._

She watched as he stopped crying and picked up his schoolbag, leaving to go to the hospital.

_And become even stronger._

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows! I have over 300 now!<strong>

**I'm sorry, but I won't be able to update any of my stories for the rest of the month because our finals are in two weeks, so I really need to study.**

**Please review!**


	17. Kokuyo Arc: Part 1

**Warning: **OOC characters.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KHR. All rights belong to Amano Akira.

"Hi"-normal

"_Hi_"-thoughts

* * *

><p>The first thing Gokudera thought when he woke up was, <em>I want to punch his face.<em>

No, he wasn't talking about the teen he had fought on the street and had ultimately lost against. He was talking about the owner of the very, _very_ annoying face smiling down at him. Fortunately, the face moved away before he had a chance to punch it. _Or unfortunately, _Gokudera thought as he gritted his teeth. _I really wanted to punch him..._

His anger dissipated almost immediately when he heard his most precious person speak up.

"Gokudera-kun? Are you alright?"

He smiled brightly and turned to Tsuna.

"I'm fine, Tsuna-sama! You don't have to worry about me!"

He immediately felt a rush of happiness when Tsuna smiled back.

"Good!"

Their happy moment was ruined when Yamamoto butted into their conversation.

"Hey, Gokudera! Why didn't you tell me you were in the mafia?"

Gokudera's eyes widened as he grabbed Yamamoto and pulled him down, hissing at him. _How does he know?!_

"Who told you that?! And don't mention the mafia around Tsuna-sama!"

"Gokudera-kun."

Tsuna's soft voice managed to cut through the air, and Gokudera turned to him, his eyes widening for a moment before going back to normal. He smiled at Tsuna, ignoring the bad feeling niggling at the back of his mind.

"Yes, Tsuna-sama?"

What he heard next almost made him do a double-take.

"I'm the one told Yamamoto about the mafia."

He froze for a moment before letting out a short laugh. _I must have heard wrong. There's no way__—_

"Please excuse my rudeness Tsuna-sama, but I think I heard—"

"You heard correctly, Gokudera-kun."

Gokudera had to wrap his stunned mind around the new revelation. _Tsuna-sama knows about the mafia? Since when?_

"But—"

Tsuna smiled gently at him.

"I know you tried to keep it a secret from me, but I met a man named Dino, and he accidentally told me that Ietsugu was involved in the mafia. I went to Reborn, and he told me about everything else."

Gokudera looked down at his hands, which were clenching his blanket tightly. _Dino? Oh, Bucking Bronco...I'll kill him._

"Gokudera-kun..."

He looked up at Tsuna, releasing the blanket. He took in the hesitance of Tsuna's words, the insecurity that practically radiated off of him, and nodded reassuringly.

"Do you need something, Tsuna-sama?"

Tsuna closed his eyes and squeezed his fists, opening them again as he took a deep breath. He looked straight at Gokudera, his gaze unwavering as he asked the question that had been on his mind for a long time, but had never gotten the courage to ask. _It's now or never..._

"Why didn't you tell me you were in the mafia?"

Gokudera stared at Tsuna for a few seconds before answering.

"I thought you would be safer that way. The mafia world is a dangerous place. I...I didn't want you to be in any danger. Once you know about the mafia, once you are exposed to the mafia, there is no way out. You will never be free from it, no matter how much you try to forget and move on." _You are so pure, so innocent; I didn't want that to be tainted by the darkness of the mafia._

There was a few seconds of silence before Tsuna nodded his head in acceptance of his explanation.

"I...I understand, but..."

Gokudera looked at him questioningly. _But what?_

"You're my best friend, Gokudera-kun. Friends are supposed to trust each other, right? I don't want to keep secrets from each other. I understand why you would keep this a secret from me, but...doing this only made it hurt more when I found out. Just...can we not keep things secret from each other?" _I'm such a hypocrite, _Tsuna thought.

Gokudera looked down at his hands, which were white from clenching onto his blankets so tightly again. _Tsuna-sama..._

"I'm...sorry."

Tsuna smiled gently.

"It's okay, Gokudera-kun. Let's not keep anymore secrets, okay?"

Gokudera felt his mouth moving before he registered what he was saying.

"I have a sister."

Tsuna tilted his head to the side questioningly.

"What?"

Gokudera continued before he could have any second thoughts. _Now that I've started, I might as well finish._

"Well, she's more like a half-sister. Her name is Bianchi. She's a hit woman, and her weapon is called "Poison Cooking". Anything she makes is poisonous, and anything she touches turns into Poison Cooking. I can't look at her without feeling sick because of childhood trauma. I was forced to eat her Poison Cooking many times when I was a child, so my stomach violently reacts whenever I see her face." _That's an understatement..._

By now, Tsuna and Yamamoto were sitting in silence, listening carefully as Gokudera talked.

"I'm a bastard child. My father was a mafia boss, and he my mom was a pianist. He met her, they fell in love, and they had me. My father was already married to another woman, who was my sister's mother. In the mafia, illegitimate children were not tolerated, so they hid the fact that I was not a child borne by my father and his legal wife. My biological mother was only allowed to visit me three times a year, until she died when I was three. I only found out she was my real mother when I was eight. I ran away from home the next year and became a freelance hitman."

Gokudera hadn't even realized he had been crying silently until he felt a pair of warm arms envelop his body.

"It's okay, Gokudera-kun."

With that, the dam broke.

Gokudera cried loudly as he released all his pent-up frustration, his anger, his pain. He cried as he mourned the death of his real mother; the one that had given him more love in three years than he had ever felt in his entire life.

All the while, Tsuna rubbed his back soothingly, comforting him, not caring that his shirt was getting wet from the tears. Yamamoto turned his head to the side awkwardly and left the room, shutting the door quietly.

_I'm such a hypocrite. "Let's not keep anymore secrets", huh...__I'm sorry, but..._

_I don't think I can tell you about Ietsugu anytime soon._

* * *

><p>Tsuna shut the door behind him quietly as he left the room, careful not to disturb the room's occupant. He smiled softly when he saw Yamamoto standing in the hallway, standing up straight from where he had been leaning on the wall.<p>

"He's sleeping."

Yamamoto nodded, his usual smile replaced by a small frown. Without another word, they both began to make their way towards the exit.

"Tsuna-kun?"

Tsuna stopped and turned to look towards a somewhat familiar voice. He tilted his head when he saw a girl with short light brown hair.

"Sasagawa-san?"

Her face split into a small smile.

"It _is_ you! I thought I you were familiar, but I wasn't really sure."

Tsuna smiled back hesitantly.

"W-Why are you h-here?"

Her smile disappeared almost instantly.

"O-Onii-chan...he tried to climb up the chimney in the bathhouse and fell down! He's so stupid! He sprained his arm and...and...stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

Tsuna and Yamamoto watched in silence as tears began falling down her face.

"We'll visit go him with you."

Kyoko and Tsuna both looked up at Yamamoto.

"What?"

Yamamoto looked at them and smiled.

"If he sees you with some friends, then I'm sure he'll be really happy!"

Kyoko nodded and wiped her tears away with her sleeve. She looked up and smiled at them, her eyes still slightly red from crying.

"Thank you."

* * *

><p>Whatever Tsuna was expecting, it wasn't this.<p>

He froze in the doorway of Sasagawa Ryohei's room, staring disbelievingly at the body covered in bandages. _What the heck? I thought she just said that he sprained his arm! This is way more serious than a sprain! Lies! Lies everywhere!_

"Kyoko!"

"Onii-chan!"

Tsuna stayed frozen in shock as the two siblings had a heartfelt reunion. _What the heck is even going on anymore..._

"S-Sasagawa-senpai?"

"Oh! Sawada!"

Tsuna kept gaping at the scene in front of him. _Why is he acting like this is a normal occurrence?!_

"Hi, senpai!"

"Oh! Yamamoto's here too!"

_What the actual heck._

"Hey, Sawada! There's a chair here!"

Tsuna closed his mouth and made his way to the chair next to Ryohei's bed. _I don't care. I'm friends with crazy people. It's better not to question anything. Yup._

It was only when Kyoko left to go to the bathroom that everyone stopped laughing.

Tsuna twitched awkwardly at the tension that suddenly filled the room. Ryohei clenched his fists and looked at the two sitting by his bed.

"Sawada, Yamamoto."

They stared back with an equally solemn face and nodded in unison.

"I have six broken bones, seven cracked, and I lost five of my teeth."

Tsuna stood up suddenly and slammed his hands on the side of the bed, making sure not to hurt Ryohei.

"Why—"

"I don't want her to worry."

Tsuna lifted his hands from the bed and clenched his fists.

"What?"

"Kyoko doesn't like it when I get into fights. I don't want her to worry."

Tsuna sunk down into his seat, looking down at his clenched hands.

"What happened to you?'

"I was attacked by an extreme high school student wearing the uniform for Kokuyo Junior High School while I was jogging outside."

Tsuna sighed and closed his eyes. His eyelids flew open again when he heard the sound of a chair clattering on the floor.

"You shouldn't hide the truth from her."

_Yamamoto?_

"What are you extremely talking about?"

Yamamoto turned away, making his way towards the door. He slid it open and turned his head back a little, smiling sadly.

"It only hurts more when loved ones hide things from you."

* * *

><p>Tsuna smiled as he was ambushed by Lambo and I-Pin when he got home.<p>

"Mamma!"

He took his shoes off before bending down to catch the two children.

"Lambo, I-Pin! How was your day?"

They glanced at each other before smiling brightly.

"It was so fun! We played tag—"

"And then we played catch—"

"And then we—"

Tsuna stood up with the two in his arms, making his way to the living room. He set the children onto the couch and listened as they excitedly talked about their day.

"Mamma?"

He looked down at I-Pin and smiled gently.

"Yes, I-Pin?"

She looked down and twisted her hands together.

"When is Fuuta-nii coming back?"

Tsuna's smile immediately melted off his face. He sighed and tilted his head back, looking up at the ceiling.

"I don't know, I-Pin..." _Soon, I hope._

Sensing the sadness that suddenly filled the air, Lambo jumped up onto Tsuna's lap.

"Mamma! What's for dinner?"

Tsuna's eyes widened in surprise before going back to normal as he smiled back down at Lambo.

"I don't know...what do you want for dinner, Lambo? I-Pin?"

"Lambo-san wants takoyaki!"

"Lambo! Takoyaki is not dinner!"

Tsuna leaned back as he watched them fight over what to have for dinner. _I'll just go make some katsudon...that should be fine._

"Guys, how does katsudon sound?"

* * *

><p>Tsuna usually made it a rule to start dinner as a family, but seeing as it was almost eight o'clock, he decided to make an exception.<p>

"Lambo, I-Pin, you guys can start dinner now." _They have to go to sleep at nine, and it's better if they go to sleep after at least hour of digestion..._

"But pa—Hibari isn't here yet!"

_I sincerely hope he wasn't about to say "papa"..._

"It's okay, he's probably busy. He might not come back until much later, so just eat now and go to sleep, okay?"

They looked at each other before looking at Tsuna worriedly. Then they turned back to their food and picked up their spoons.

"Let's eat!"

After the children were done eating, Tsuna took a bath with them, smiling as they played around in the bathtub.

"Gyahahaha!"

"Lambo! No splashing! Gyoza-ken!"

"Gupya!"

Tsuna hurried to catch Lambo before he landed on the floor after flying out of the bathtub. After a few minutes of lecturing them (again), Tsuna finally tucked them into bed, smiling as they slept peacefully on the futon. He shut the door quietly as he left, turning off the lights as he made his way to the living room.

When it was eleven o'clock, Tsuna had finally had enough. _Where the heck is Kyoya?! He's never this late! I will not be making any hamburger steak for a week if he doesn't come back soon!_

When it was midnight, Tsuna got up from the couch and went to the front door, grabbing his coat along the way. He slipped on his shoes as he left, taking one last look at the house. _Lambo and I-Pin should be fine alone...I'll just be gone for a few minutes, anyway._

The attacks, his friends in the hospital, and now Hibari missing...it could only be one thing. _It probably has something to do with Ietsugu and the mafia..._

It was time to talk to Reborn.

* * *

><p>When Reborn opened the door and was greeted with a head of fluffy brown hair, he had to say that he wasn't surprised at all.<p>

He had woken up when he heard soft tapping at the front door, and opened it to see Tsuna standing at the doorstep. After taking one look at his expression, Reborn opened the door wider and stepped aside to let him in, closing the door when he had entered.

"Kyoya hasn't come back yet."

Reborn led him to the living room, sitting down on top of multiple cushions at the small coffee table across from Tsuna.

"Gokudera-kun is hurt, and Sasagawa-senpai is also severely injured."

There was a moment of silence as Reborn studied the slumped figure in front of him, taking in the tense shoulders and the bowed head.

"Reborn...what's going on here?"

Reborn sighed and jumped onto the table.

"Two weeks ago, there was a jailbreak at a high security prison reserved only for the worst of mafia criminals who have committed the most heinous crimes. The escapees killed several of the wardens and other prisoners. The mafia's information network tracked down the identities of the ringleaders and found out that the two of them were subordinates of Rokudo Mukuro. They came to Japan and formed the group that have been attacking citizens in Namimori in hopes of getting to the Vongola Decimo. They have kidnapped the Ranking Prince, Fuuta della Stella—"

Tsuna jerked his head up in surprise.

"Fuuta?! They have Fuuta?! Why?! He's just a kid!"

Reborn sat and waited for Tsuna to calm down before continuing.

"—Using his ranking of fighting strength to attack people from weakest to strongest. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, Gokudera Hayato and Sasagawa Ryohei were one of the top five people on that list, so they were attacked."

Tsuna raised his hand instinctively, and Reborn nodded at him.

"Are these 'escaped convicts' part of the mafia?"

Reborn shook his head once before looking straight at Tsuna.

"No. Rather, it's the opposite. These people..."

_...Have been exiled by the mafia._

Tsuna thought over the new information as he made his way back, looking at the ground the whole way. _Why were these people exiled from the mafia? What did they do to make that happen?_

_Why are they going after Ietsugu?_

_Who's the next one on the list?_

* * *

><p>Tsuna yawned as he woke up the next morning, trudging to the bathroom to wash his face. He got dressed quickly and made breakfast, waking up the kids before heading out. It was only when he was halfway out the door that he remembered that Hibari was missing.<p>

An air of gloom immediately descended upon him, and he sat down on the step, hugging his knees as he moped. That was the sight that Yamamoto was greeted with when he went to pick up Tsuna to go to school together.

"Woah, Tsuna! What happened?"

Without looking up, Tsuna mumbled out his answer.

"Kyoya hasn't come back yet..."

In a flash, Yamamoto's smile was turned upside down. He squatted down next to Tsuna.

"Do you think he was attacked?"

Tsuna looked up at Yamamoto worriedly.

"But Kyoya's the strongest man in Namimori! He would have beaten them and come back already!"

Yamamoto patted Tsuna's back.

"Maybe...maybe he was tricked or something." _Or maybe he finally found someone stronger than him..._

He stood up, pulling Tsuna with him as he smiled.

"But he'll definitely come back! He's too stubborn to stay down for too long!"

Tsuna nodded hesitantly.

"Let's go! We wouldn't want Hibari to come back and see that we were late for school, would we?"

Tsuna smiled back, jogging until he was walking next to Yamamoto.

"Yeah!"

When they got to school, the first thing they noticed was how empty it was.

"Why isn't anyone here yet? I don't think we came that early..."

Yamamoto looked around the courtyard curiously. _What's going on?_

"Ah!"

Tsuna yelled as he realized what was wrong. Yamamoto turned to him.

"What's wrong, Tsuna?"

Tsuna grabbed at his hair.

"I forgot! Mr. Nezu said that school was closed until further notice!"

Yamamoto merely smiled and laughed.

"Haha! I forgot too!"

"You didn't forget, you weren't even awake to hear it!"

"Haha!"

"Yamamoto!"

"Well, what should we do now?"

Tsuna paused to think.

"I guess...you could come over to my house? i don't want to leave Lambo and I-Pin alone for much longer, anyway..."

Yamamoto put his hands behind his head, smiling.

"Sounds good to me! Let's go!"

"Wait—"

Tsuna sighed as he was dragged to his home. _I guess it's fine, but..._

_What is this foreboding feeling I have?_

* * *

><p>It was almost four when Tsuna heard a knock at the door. He opened it, only to be greeted by empty space.<p>

"What? I could have sworn..."

"Down here."

Tsuna looked down and saw a child with a black suit and fedora. He smiled, picking him up and allowing him to settle on his hair.

"Reborn! What are you doing here?"

He was filled with a sense of dread when he heard the hitman sigh.

"...I have some bad news."

Tsuna reached the living room and nodded at Yamamoto, who was playing with the two children. He glanced at the hitman resting on Tsuna's head and stared at Tsuna inquisitively. After a few seconds of eye contact, Yamamoto nodded again and ushered Lambo and I-Pin out of the room, covering it up with a competition.

"Whoever gets to the yard last has to listen to whatever the winner says for the rest of the day!"

Tsuna listened as the children laughed, sitting down on the couch. Reborn jumped off of his head and landed on his lap.

"Tsuna..."

Tsuna nodded tensely.

"Hibari Kyoya went into the hideout of the gang of escaped convicts, and he hasn't come out."

Tsuna's eyes widened.

"Is he okay?! I need to help him! I need to—"

"Tsuna."

Tsuna looked at the small hitman in front of him.

"Baka-Ie was given an order by the ninth boss of the Vongola Family. He has to eliminate these convicts."

The hitman hopped down from his lap, taking his leave.

"The gang is residing in Kokuyo Land. We will be attacking them at eight."

_Don't be late, Dame-Tsuna._

* * *

><p>After eating dinner, Tsuna pulled Yamamoto aside and told him everything that Reborn had revealed. Yamamoto immediately turned to the children.<p>

"Hey guys! Why don't you go to sleep now?" _Wait, why?_

They looked up at him and whined.

"But Lambo-san doesn't want to!"

"Bedtime is nine o'clock!"

"Lambo-san isn't tired at all!"

Yamamoto squatted down.

"If you guys go to sleep, I'll treat you to takoyaki tomorrow. We'll even go to an amusement park! How about that?"

The kids agreed immediately. _Wow, he already knows how to manipulate them, _Tsuna thought. After tucking them into bed, Yamamoto grabbed Tsuna and dragged him to the door.

"What time is it?"

Tsuna glanced at the clock by the living room.

"It's 7:40. Why do you ask?"

"Good. We can still make it in time."

"Make it in time for what?" _You didn't answer my question._

Yamamoto looked over at him and smiled.

"To save Hibari!" he exclaimed as if it were totally obvious. Tsuna's eyes widened, and he screeched.

"WHAT?!"

Yamamoto rubbed his ears, grimacing in pain.

"Wow, Tsuna, I didn't know you could scream so loudly."

Meanwhile, Tsuna was opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

"No! You can't come with me!"

"Why?"

"It's too dangerous! I can't let you get hurt!"

All traces of a smile were gone from Yamamoto's face by now.

"That's right, Tsuna. It's dangerous, which is exactly why I can't let you go alone. I don't want you to get hurt when I can be there to protect you. That's the reason I've been practicing the Shigure Souen Ryuu. That's the reason I...gave up baseball."

Tsuna's eyes widened with the new revelation. _Yamamoto...gave up baseball?_

"Why?! Don't you love baseball!? Why would you give it up?!"

"I do love baseball, but...I found something more precious to me than baseball. You guys are the first _real_ friends I've ever had. Everyone else just wanted to be friends with me because of my skill in baseball. I thought I would have to live the rest of my life giving fake smiles to all my fake friends. Then you came. You...you didn't become my friend for the popularity. You didn't become my friend to raise your social status. You, Hibari, Gokudera...you guys are my first friends, and I want to help you. I want to protect you. I want to laugh with you, and have fun with you, and..."

Tsuna listened to Yamamoto's speech with his mouth open, disbelieving.

"I'm sorry for hiding it from you, but...no more secrets, right?"

Tsuna nodded numbly. Yamamoto smiled again and pulled him towards the door again. They put on their jackets and slipped their shoes on, opening the door. Yamamoto grabbed Tsuna's hand and sprinted, running towards the next town.

"Wha—Why are you running, Yamamoto?"

Yamamoto turned back and smiled.

"We need to run if we want to make it there on time!"

Tsuna allowed himself to be pulled, running as fast as he can to keep up with Yamamoto. He huffed out a short laugh as he ran, smiling at the tall teen in front of him. "_No more secrets", huh..._

_Maybe I'll tell them someday._

* * *

><p><strong>Hi! Sorry, no fighting yet. :'( There will be fighting in the next chapter, though! Thank you for the follows, favorites, and reviews! I really appreciate them! And here's Ryohei, for those who asked...<strong>

**Review?**


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